ROBBIE WILLIAMS – “Feel”
This, on the other hand, is dreck. Great opening line, but after that it’s all moody teasing and shuffly drum loops and superstar ennui and no resolutions, just a vague itch in the back of your brain where half a song once was. And I know most of you think singing ‘technique’ is awful but it’s considerably worse when the guy trying all the techniques can’t sing in the first place: every word in this song gets split, or twisted, or chewed up, or overstressed, or destressed until it’s just a soup of mannerisms. Yeah, yeah, “that sounds great!”, but honestly it doesn’t – often before Robbie’s sounded winningly self-conscious when he does his rock singing, like he’s his own karaoke act. But “Feel” is just strenuous – ‘technique’ on Robbie is like stabilisers on a bike, it keeps him steady but stops him really going anywhere.