ROBBIE WILLIAMS 'Britpop' - Everything A Great Album Should Be.

By Paul Laird

Author of "The Birth And Impact Of Britpop: Mis-Shapes, Scenesters And Insatiable Ones"

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence, and will be the end thereof if we pursue the  path that leads to it”. 

That’s what the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, said. 

I reckon he might have been on to something. 

We all want to be happy. 

The trick is to figure out what happiness is, and what path leads to it. 

Me? 

Dead simple. 

Find a review of “Britpop” and read the comments. 

Grown men, well into their forties in all likelihood, frothing at the mouth about everything to do  with Robbie Williams. Bile. Vitriol. Rage. You can hear them slamming their porcine fists into the  keyboard. Their eyes clouded with tears of fury at the sheer audacity of a bloke who was in a  boyband using the word “Britpop”! Doesn’t he know that Britpop isn’t something to be played  with? Doesn’t he understand that it belongs to THEM? Has he no care for “Mosely Shoals”, “All  Change”, “Be Here Now”, or the collected works of Northern fucking Uproar? These are albums  that positively reeked of raw talent and that soundtracked a generation, not the lumpen,  moribund, stinkers that continue to soundtrack the pre-gig rituals of men in Penguin polo shirts,  jeans from M&S, and those funny Cornish pasty shoes.

No sir. 

Honestly I cannot get enough of that stuff. 

I can see them so clearly. 

I can see through them even more clearly. 

I can see deep into their withered souls. Boys trapped in the sagging bodies of middle-aged men, desperately clinging to the idea that  their teenage years were the bestest years not just of their lives, but ever, ever, ever. They hate  the very idea of a man like Robbie Williams. They want to dismiss him as a “fat dancer”, a Butlins  Red Coat, a fake, a charlatan, and they can’t understand why it isn’t the bloke from Kula Shaker  who has the same number of number one albums as The Beatles instead of him. 

I have bad news for you “lads”. 

 Most of the things you cherish are fucking rubbish - and the rest only matter because you were young when you heard them.

There isn’t a single song in the combined catalogues of any of those dreary trad rockers you so  adore that comes anywhere close to the songs on “Britpop”. Not a single one. Not “All Around  The World”, not “Finetime”, not “Life From a Window”, not “Tattva”…Jesus Christ, fucking  “Tattva”. If you are willing to pop that on a list of your favourite songs and kick the fucking shit  out of the radio when “Angels” comes on you are worse than awful. 

The truth of the matter is that Williams is a man who has transcended pop music. He is  something greater than his own work. Like Morrissey he is as important for who he is, for his  journey through the pop culture landscape, as he is for the myriad songs that have topped the  charts everywhere from here to eternity. He is, I am afraid to tell you chaps, a star. He is an icon.  He will be remembered long after the bloke who played bass in The La’s has passed away. The  acts, not artists, you so adore won’t leave a smudge on the pages of pop history…Robbie will  have chapters dedicated to him.

13 studio albums as a solo artist, 12 of them hitting the top spot in the charts (the other one  reaching number 2 - and still went multi-platinum). Over 50 singles - 7 number ones. Continuing  to fill stadia across the world. By every metric he is one of the most successful artists in the  history of pop music. He is also a man who LOVES music…he gives nods and winks to other  artists in his lyrics, he speaks with adoration about his inspirations, he has Lufthaus as another  outlet for his passion for music, and he does it all with humour, wit, verve, and a level of honesty  that few others can match. 

But it isn’t just about music with Robbie, he is a man who has scaled dizzying highs, hit  devastating lows, been mocked, ridiculed, questioned, and attacked by the “real” music crowd,  by sneering upper middle class Guardian types. He has endured the horrors of drug and alcohol  misuse. He has had to deal with trauma while in the public eye. His response to all of that has  been to be true to himself, to find out who he is, to do the work, to accept the faults and failings in  his make-up, to be willing to speak out about anxiety, depression, childhood trauma, and to finally  put himself in a position where he is inspirational for others who suffer. That isn’t something you  can say about too many other stars of his size. 

“Britpop” is evidence of all of the things that I love about Robbie. Every morning the last thing I  do before I head into work is listen to “I Love My Life”. It has become a mantra, it has played a  role in healing me from my own trauma. Now with this collection he is nodding to the time and the music that once meant so much to me, but which almost ended up killing my interest in music  completely. It is everything that a great album should be. It offers a path to happiness…and isn’t  that the whole point of everything?