Robbie Williams's career has been strange, to say the least. He was the token Bad Boy in Take That, British 5-piece boy band who were apparently huge overseas but only had one song (Back For Good) in the US. He went on to minor solo success until he released Angels and skyrocketed to all kinds of fame in the UK. He was still virtually unknown in the US. Then he released Millenium stateside, which was a mediocre hit... and then he dissipated. Yet he's still huge in the UK. It's very strange.

Anyway, when Robbie was trying to make the crossover, he decided to do some patchwork from his two solo albums, Life Thru A Lens and I've Been Expecting You. What we got in the states was The Ego Has Landed, which ran like a greatest hits compilation, giving us all of his good stuff, and nearly no filler.

This disc starts out with Lazy Days, a high energy rocking song with a summery feel to it. "Lazy days, calling to you, come out to play, the future lies with you...", he sings. This song is crafted quite well. It has a great sing-along melody while still having a slight edge to it, something Williams has gone to trademark. I really like this song, especially the chorus, and the energy doesn't go down throughout.

After this is Robbie's big US single, Millenium. (To be fair, it wasn't that big, but I'm trying to cut him some slack.) This is Robbie at his finest. His tongue is planted firmly in cheek. This song has an instantly recognizable vocal part (you know you love that "oooooo-oo-oo-oo-oooo"!) and a catchy chorus, which made it very appealing for radio.

After this is my personal favorite, No Regrets. One of the reasons why I think Robbie Williams is so great (and probably one of the reasons he's not popular on my side of the pond) is because he can say the absolute most retarded things, yet still put tons of emotion into his music when he really wants to. He really demonstrates this in this track, a vulnerable ballad about a scorn love. It's hard to imagine you can feel sorry for Robbie when he coos the lyrics "Return the videos, they're late.", but he somehow manages to wrap this all together into a nice little package. Especially the melodramatic closing, where he mutters "I guess the love we once had is officially... dead."

But it's hard for Robbie to stay serious for long, so we move on to Strong. Robbie really masters the summery pop feel again on this song, which also has some great campy lyrics. "...and that's a good line to take it to the bridge." This song is so catchy that you'll have it in your head years after you hear it (yeah, I still do) and Robbie actually does have a really good voice, which you can hear on this song.

But Rob really proves himself on his smash ballad Angels. This is a song where he is uncharacteristically serious, but it is a great song none the less. It has the perfect combination of all the things that make a good ballad - rhythmic piano, orchestra, over the top chorus, sweeping vocals, and even adlibs. "And through it all, she offers me protection, a lot of love and affection, whether I'm right or wrong... and down the waterfall, wherever it may take me, I know that life won't break me, when I come to call... she won't forsake me... I'm loving angels instead." Yeah, I don't really understand what this song is about, but Robbie sounds great and this is, after all, his signature tune.

But I much prefer when Williams is doing the tongue-in-cheek summery guitar tunes, which he continues doing on Old Before I Die. This song has a driving, formulatic, catchy chorus and lyrics about growing old and seeing a variety of things before dying. One of my favorite lines in this song is "I hope I live to see the day the Pope gets high." Classic Robbie Williams.

Another big song of Robbie's is Let Me Entertain You, a high energy song with even some jazz elements thrown in (brass, most notably) with a chorus as simple as "Let meeeeeee entertain you!" Most agree that pop music is at its best when it is sweet and innocent, but Robbie manages to be sweet and still hump something every time he sings this song. A great lyric is "Shake your a**, come over here, now scream!" Somehow, he manages to be sugary and offensive at the same time, and that, my friends, is a talent in itself.

The only song I'm not very fond of on this CD is Jesus In A Camper Van. I don't know what this song is about - apparently some guy in rehab looked like Jesus - oh, Lord, indeed. This song has a kind of catchy chorus, but for some reason, it never managed to grow on me, and is as close to this album comes to filler.

He brings it back in full swing though, with Win Some, Lose Some. I'm in love with the girl shouting "I love you, baby!" throughout the background of this song. (A bit of trivia - this is actually Robbie's then-girlfriend Nicole Appleton of All Saints. She left it on his answering machine.) This is Robbie's classic blend of summery pop. The stand out is the bridge, where he emotionally cries out "She touched my face and called me her lover, I never thought that I'd need another!" I love how Robbie can make all his songs with the same formula, yet they all sound original.

Robbie gets a little softer on Killing Me, a kind of midtempo balladish song that sounds a little bit jazzy. The hook of "killing me slowly" is quite catchy, but when the orchestra comes in it just sounds a little over the top... but that's what makes it Robbie Williams. This is a pretty good track, even if it might just be filler.

He really goes against the grain with the next track, Man Machine. Although reluctant to skip this, I never really get into listening to this track. This song has kind of a rock feel to it, although it's hard to describe because it doesn't really sound like rock. It just sounds... weird. "I'm a man machine, drinking gasoline, super human being, shooting laser beams." Yeah, I don't understand the appeal here.

Robbie goes all softie again on She's The One, but he does it remarkably well on this track. This is a cover, but I don't remember who originally sang it. Oops. Anyway, this is actually an unoffensive piano ballad where Robbie's vocals sound vulnerable and heartfelt. It's actually a love song with no hate, regret, or anger, so it sounds a little bit out of place, but it is a refreshing change and Robbie manages to pull off the token crooner ballad very well.

But Robbie can't be unoffensive and nice for long, and he comes back with a bang on Karma Killer. This track starts out with a subdued strumming guitar and quietly angry vocals by Robbie, but the chorus comes in full swing where Robbie sings with absolutely no inhibition. "How do you sleep? You've never loved! Why was I never good enough? Thought you'd leave me fallen forever, karma killer." This is one of my favorite song because it's so honestly angry. Robbie also holds a note in this song for painfully long - he actually is quite a good vocalist. This is definitely a great track.

The CD closes with the sweet, acoustic ballad One Of God's Better People. "You're one of God's better people, and you don't know, that's why you're special." His vocals are very subdued on this song, and it's a welcome change, and it sounds great over the simple acoustic guitar. "I can't lii-ii-iiive this without you!" He sounds great, and this is a nice little 15 minute song. Okay, it's not really 15 minutes, but stay tuned because Robbie pipes back in with a brief, hateful poem at about 13:30.

Overall, I think Rob did a nice job gathering some of his best stuff to import over to us Americans. Unfortunately, he never really did explode, but he still produced a great album with The Ego Has Landed.

Recommended: Yes