The Ego Has Landed

05/04/1999 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Bill Holdship

Don't be thrown by the fact that Robbie Williams is a former member of British prefabricated teen unit Take That. His debut U.S. album--the title is a pun on the controversy that led to Williams's dismissal from the group in 1996--is about as far removed from the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync as an artist could be.

In fact, The Ego Has Landed features some pop music of the highest order. Combining the best tracks from Williams's first two solo discs--Life Thru A Lens and I've Been Expecting You--the American compilation is all over the pop musical map.

"Millennium" samples the orchestral riff from John Barry's theme to the James Bond flick You Only Live Twice (originally a hit for Nancy Sinatra). A very cool thing to do...and it creates a very cool new song in the process. "No Regrets," a melancholic ballad, finds Williams collaborating with Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys; it was a smash hit in the U.K. "Angels" was yet another huge British hit single for Williams, but if you didn't know better, you might swear it's a new Elton John track.

Even better is "Old Before I Die" (take that, Pete Townshend!), another U.K. hit and POP! of the highest order. We're talking powerpop here, as in Lennon-McCartney and the like. Perhaps it's because the Beatles were originally considered teen idols (so were the Rolling Stones, come to think of it). Whatever the case, it seems that Brit teen units sometimes aspire to something higher artistically than their U.S. counterparts--and that's surely the case with this teen wonder.

Will his ego soar here in the States? Only time will tell.