We've got stars directing our fate and we're praying it's not too late

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts.

04/04/99 : I've Been Expecting You - Robbie Williams

Our third visit with the lad and whilst I can't claim he's up there with my favourite artists, I'm lead to believe that this is up there with the best of his output and I must have heard it at some point because it's one "we" own - 18/39.

Well, "Strong", "No Regrets" and "Millenium" are certainly a strong opening to an album - all of them are, at worst, entirely bearable and even I had to admit that "Millenium" is a decent track.  I also like "She's The One" - it's nicely understated for a guy not renowned for subtlety.  And I have to grudgingly admit that the rest of it isn't really much worse, although some of it is a bit Andy Williams easy-listening-ish

We're at #5 in the charts this week on his 23rd week of a 78 week run, having spent 3 weeks at #1 in his first, eleventh and sixteenth weeks - seems pretty random!  He then took two weeks off and came back for another 37 weeks and managed seven more repeat visits, last being seen in '03.  The rest of the top five this week were The Corrs, The Corrs (seriously?!?), Stereophonics and Britney Spears (Mamma Mia hadn't premiered yet, so no ABBA) and the highest new entry was Andrea Bocelli (#21).

Wikipedia's entry is a bit odd - it's only got sections on critical and commercial response and the corresponding lawsuit.  The critical response was very positive - even NME was nice saying "sure, Robbie's still more Michael Barrymore than Michael Stipe,..but he's a natural-born star and he wants you to love him".  However good the critical response was though, it had nothing on the commercial response - it was #5 in the '98 year-end chart (despite only being released in October) and #6 in the '99 chart.  It also did well in Europe and Latin America and has sold over five million copies globally.  The lawsuit was quite interesting because some guy told him something in rehab he thought was quite clever so he included it in on "Jesus In A Camper Van" - and it turned out they were Loudon Wainwright III lyrics.  He did reach out to Loudon when the situation became clear, but it didn't make any difference because the company that owned the rights fancied an easy (and big) pay day - the song does not appear on later versions of the album.

"Customers also listened to" Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Natalie Imbruglia and The Calling (who?) - that list gets weirder as it progresses.  I'm still not Robbie's biggest fan but I found this album considerably more bearable than I was expecting - I wouldn't exactly recommend it to anyone, but I can at least understand why people like it.

11/04/99 - A welcome revisit
28/03/99 - A bit of a disappointment

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