Released on 23/10/06
Label: EMI

It's almost a decade now since Robbie Williams stepped free from boyband hell in order to prove he was something more than an ex-Red Coat fat dancer from Take That. In the ensuing years, watching him struggle to reconcile that thin line between fame and credibility has become a national obsession. Caught between duets with best friend and "You've Been Framed" presenter Jonathan Wilkes, while also wanting to be Bowie/Eminem/Liam Gallagher, Robbie has endured a somewhat schizophrenic career. The crowd applauds when he drops his trousers, but nobody, except his dear old mum, takes him very much seriously.

Truth be told, Robbie is a born entertainer, but he's no artist. Even those 'classic' Guy Chambers tunes - most of them watered down Britpop or, more often than not, pure third-hand rip offs - were little more than vehicles to push the brand, to the point where Robbie himself has long sounded bored with the songs coming out his mouth. When, in a thick Potteries accent, he instructs listeners to "dance like you've just won the Special Olympics" on "Rudebox", you're witnessing a man trying to bury the clichés of "Angels".

It is with this cautionary background in mind that the casual listener should approach "Rudebox" the album. Undoubtedly one of the year's strangest releases, you get the sense that this hotchpotch of cover versions, Streets-style rapping and '80s electro pop was intended to be Robbie's "Achtung Baby". Either that, or with £80m in the bank, he just doesn't a f*ck anymore.

Certainly, you have to wonder what his core Heat-reading audience, more at home with "She's The One", "Millennium" and "Let Me Entertain You" will make of two spoken word monologues about his life history ("The 80s" and "The 90s"), a postmodern interpretation of My Robot Friend's "We're The Pet Shop Boys" (featuring Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe), a straight-faced celebrity-laced homage to the Queen of Pop ("She's Madonna") and, most of all, a hidden track called "Dickhead".

That's not inferring "Rudebox" is a particularly difficult album - it's not - just an eclectic one. The rapping will ensure those Norman Wisdom comparisons burn a while longer, but throw in a Lily Allen cameo ("Keep On", a highlight), uninspired versions of the Human League's "Louise" and Lewis Taylor's "Lovelight", stoned reggae ("Good Doctor") and Beck-style electro ("Never Touch That Switch") and you're struggling to think of a base not covered.

But while his fanbase may struggle, two things are for sure. Had he released "Rudebox" in 1997, Robbie Williams' career would have followed a quite different trajectory - in fact, he'd probably be gurning alongside Dane Bowers in TV not-so-supergroup Upper Street. And secondly, though this is a brave and at times foolhardy album, the image of the clown prince still abides. If Robbie Williams still entertains notions of credibility on the scale of David Bowie, then he remains closer than ever to the Laughing Gnome than he does to Ziggy Stardust.

    by Adam Webb