Robbie Williams: Misoverstood Underdog?

Here we have a guest post from a new addition to the MCT carousel of scribbling talent. He goes by the nom of Nick Bryan, and he “maintains” a blog called Feeding The Black Dog. GO NICK GO.

Anyone remember Robbie Williams from earlier in the decade? Pop star, successful, rich, prone to whinging about how hard and unfair it all was?

Actually, maybe you’re too young. You only remember the recent Robbie Williams, the less-successful reject member of the unexpectedly popular reunited Take That. He did that bug-eyed thing on X-Factor, while attempting to make a comeback from the Rudebox album no-one liked much. (Except the NME, oddly.)

However you know him, you can’t help but notice that suddenly, Robbie is the underdog.

Not only compared to his former boyband peers, who he once left in the dirt, but in the pop industry as a whole, with multiple too-slick Cowell disciples sitting in his old spot. Indeed, his not-too-bad comeback single “Bodies” was pipped at the chart post by the much-worse new track from Alexandra Burke.

Even more unexpectedly, I’ve started finding Williams and his music kind of endearing now he’s fighting for success again. Partly, it’s because I find his self-centred anthem-pop more enjoyable than the American R&B acts and aforementioned X Factor genericism that he’s competing with.

But mostly, I think he plays the underdog rather well. A lot better than he played the huge success, at any rate. It’s a lot easier to take his complaining seriously when his source of angst isn’t merely ridiculous fame and sky-high record sales. Not to mention, the new album is decent. Catchy, fun but with a hint of uncertainty that resonates more with me than the swaggering arrogance it replaced.

In short, Robbie Williams is the Rebel Alliance, at least briefly. Going by recent events he may soon rejoin The Dark Side Take That and see people like me turn on him, but for now, I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I’m enjoying his stuff anew.

This guest post was wrote by Nick Bryan, who wrotes more things at his blog, Feeding The Black Dog. Give it a look, you sods.