Review Summary: An album by a man, and some other men in the background who's names you wont see on the front cover, but if you look closely in the inner sleeve of the album, you will find their names.
It's the 90's. Not literally I mean, just when this album was released it was the 90's. I think it was 98? Oh wait no it was 97. Yeah 97 sounds good let's go with that. And a man/robot built by evil record companies from the U.K called Wobbie Rilliams, had just left rehab. He had recently left Take That, due to taking too much of that, and hanging round with big hard men like Giam Lallagher. Barry Garlow (Take that's lead mimer) had had enough of Wob's antics and had a bit of a moan in private to the evil puppet master behind take that. Thus, the plug was pulled on poor old Wob and he was given the finger.
But Wob had a plan. A very cunning plan. He would become a solo artist. That would show everyone! Revenge upon the record company and Take That. But he couldn't do this alone, he was gonna need some help.
Enter Guy Chambers, who from now on will be known as.... the guy. The guy is what makes this disc spin in your disc spinning machine. Without the guy, this cd would not spin. In fact, it would probably melt or levitate and throw itself into a microwave, resulting in it melting. The guy is a pretty nifty human being. He is great at writing songs. Catchy songs, ballad-type songs, anthem-like songs and psychedelic songs, the latter which is not featured on this album. The guy can also play every instrument, but on this album he plays nothing, except the keyboard and the crack pipe.
Now Wobbie was a mimer in take that, but on this album is his debut as a singer in life. And Wob's voice isn't the kind that can make Mother Teresa come back from the dead and poo on a poo, but he can defiantly spit lyrics in tune to the Guy's compositions. But one of Wob's highlights are his talent to write words down on piece of paper, and then say them in tune to the guy's compositions. The word's that Wob writes are very nice, check these words out from karaoke must have, Angels:
"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"
Soo deep, but what could it mean? Only Wob (and the other guy who wrote the lyrics) can decipher their cryptic meaning. But these lyrics have captured the heart of everyone on the planet because they all know what the song goes like. Go to a 3rd world country, where a starving child is about to draw his last breath, and guaranteed he/she will be humming this tune. A blessing from Wob.
Brit-pop was a type of coca-cola based product from the south of England, but before it took off, a band called Blur murdered the inventor and stole the name. They then categorized their music as Brit-pop. Wob and the guy, at the time, couldn't afford any food because they had spent all their money on blank cd's, and were hungry for a slice of the Brit-pop pie. Thus a few tracks on this debut have a nice brit-pop texture to them. Lazy days, Life thru a lens and Old before I die, are songs that would fall under the category of Brit pop. Other songs on this album that are not brit-pop, are the ones found in the track list that I have not mentioned in this paragraph.
The highlights for this album, and the reason I have given it a 3.5 rating are as follows:
Wob
The guy
The other guy who wrote angels
The lowlights for this album and why it doesn't get a 5 are:
There are no swearwords
There is no metal guitar
There is no double bass drumming
There are no saxophone solos
There is no freestyle scatting
There are no black people
There is no free packet of McCoy's crisps upon purchase.
Overall: If you are looking for a cheeky little pop debut from a man who used to be in a band called Take That, then make this top of your list!
