FEATURE:
Win Some, Lose Some, No Regrets
Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You at Twenty-Five
_________
I remember the singles from…
PHOTO CREDIT: Sound on Sound
Robbie Williams’s second studio album, I’ve Been Expecting You, being played on the radio a lot in 1998 and 1999. This superb album came out on 26th October, 1998. I wanted to mark twenty-five years of an important album. I bought Strong when it came out as a single in 1999. Everyone knows about Williams leaving Take That and going solo. One of the most anticipated debut albums of the 1990s came in 1997 when he released Life Thru a Lens. Whilst a great album, I’ve Been Expecting You feels more accomplished and mature. The singles hit harder and stay in the mind longer. Less filler on this album. Co-writing most of the album with his writing partner Guy Chambers, there is a lot to appreciate. Aside from excellent singles like Strong, No Regret and Millennium, Williams’s deeper cuts such as Grace and Man Machine are pretty strong. I am not sure whether any twenty-fifth anniversary editions or celebrations are planned. If there was snobbishness around Williams and those who would always see him as immature and a bit clownish, it is to his credit he defied critics with an album that went for depth and memorability rather than laddish Pop or something quite shallow. By 1998, Britpop was over. Williams was reacting to the fact that the music he was making with Take That was also not really being bought.
As such, I’ve Bene Expecting You is an album that aims for longevity and endurance rather than a quick commercial hit. Even so, it did get to one in the U.K. The first single, Millennium, got to number one too. It was clear there was a lot of love out there for Robbie Williams – even from Take That fans who might have had to choose sides or they were angry at Williams for leaving. I think things have changed slightly when it comes to former boyband and girl group members releasing solo work. That assumption that they are a serious artist in their own right. If Gary Barlow was the main songwriter in Take That, Robbie Williams definitely proved his worth and strengths. His second studio album, I feel, is his best and most complete work. Even if you do not like his later work, many can agree that there are a few pearls to be found through I’ve Been Expecting You. I would recommend people check out a documentary on Netflix on 8th November. Williams looks back at the first twenty-five years of the professional solo career. It will be interesting to hear how he reflects on making I’ve Been Expecting You - and how it turned him into one of the country’s most popular solo male Pop artists.
Maybe a lot of the mainstream media were predisposed to sneer and slag off anything that came from Robbie Williams. For those listening to I’ve Been Expecting You, they were treated to an album where Williams (with Guy Chambers) had found a perfect balance with his songwriting. Focused and consistent, there is little to dislike about his second studio album. Its 2000 follow-up, Sing When You're Winning, did provide incredible songs such as Rock DJ, Kids and Supreme - though it lacks a little something in my view. Regardless, for those who want to witness Robbie Williams spread his wings as a songwriter and singer, I’ve Been Expecting You is where you need to head! This is what the BBC said in their 2009 review:
“Robbie Williams’ second solo long-player saw the one-time boyband singer stretch his creative wings in a fashion entirely unexpected, embracing not only sumptuous (read: overblown to some ears) string arrangements but also bruised pop-soul and boisterous, hook-heavy rock.
While his debut, the preceding year’s Life Thru a Lens, was an album typical of its type, full of missteps in pursuit of a sound guaranteed to maintain a long and successful career, I’ve Been Expecting You focused on the finest aspects of its predecessor to come across as a 12-track collection with emphasis on accessibility only through greater investment of attention. While it lacked a sing-along anthem in the mould of Angels – Millennium is a wholly different-of-mood piece – Williams and his songwriting partner Guy Chambers achieved a consistency that marks this record out as perhaps his strongest to date.
Granted, there’s no real single of memorable note beyond the aforementioned over-ubiquitous John Barry-sampling number, but the bitterness of Karma Killer – the line “I hope you choke on your Bacardi and Coke” may seem trite on paper, but Williams’ delivery confirms he means business – and the wonderful No Regrets, featuring subtle backing vocals from Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, are songs that keep the listener engaged with the narrative. And it’s here that I’ve Been Expecting You impresses – our once cocksure protagonist reveals a sensitive side, often sounding broken by the weight of emotion and expectation, and is all the more endearing for it. His stories seem real, believable, and sympathies are stirred.
“I don’t want to hate, but that’s all you’ve left me with / A bitter aftertaste and a fantasy of how we all could live”, from No Regrets, is a telling line. After the paparazzi-baiting and headlines-courting hi-jinx of his debut, Williams found the cheekiness had drained away somewhat for this often reserved and only intermittently energised set. Even Millennium, the record’s upbeat high, offers an idea of where Williams’ head was at: “Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough”.
Few critics dared to knock the man down a peg or two, as by being lyrically open like never before Williams scored his greatest album hit yet. That’s ten times platinum and counting, since you asked, and little he’s produced since has seemed quite so times-defining of content”.
Calculated and calibrated, I do hope there is some twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of I’ve Been Expecting You. There has not been a great deal written about it. A pity that a really good album was sort of mocked or seen as inferior when it came out. Granted, 1998 is one of the best music years ever. Even if Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You might not get into the top ten of that year, it is still one of the best albums from a magnificent year. This is what AllMusic wrote for their review:
“A more mature, calculated album from a pop star who's often gloried in being immature and spontaneous, I've Been Expecting You may suffer from comparisons to its excellent predecessor, but it also finds Robbie Williams weathering the sophomore storm quite well. While Williams' debut was infectious and outrageous, the second is indeed a more studied album. The opener, "Strong," begins very well, with the spot-on lyrics: "My breath smells of a thousand fags/And when I'm drunk I dance like me Dad," and "Early morning when I wake up/I look like Kiss but without the makeup." Many of the tracks on I've Been Expecting You show an undeniable growth, both in songwriting and in artistic expression; two of the highlights, "No Regrets" and "Phoenix From the Flames," are sensitive, unapologetically emotional songs that may not be as immediately catchy as those on his debut, but pack a greater punch down the road. Williams does indulge his sense of fun occasionally, playing up James Bond during the transcontinental hand-waver "Millennium" (which samples Nancy Sinatra's theme for You Only Live Twice), and simply roaring through "Win Some Lose Some" and "Jesus in a Camper Van”.
You can’t ignore the success and legacy of I’ve Been Expecting You. For the writing of the album, Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers began in Jamaica in the spring of 1998 – not a bad place to get the juices flowing! I’ve Been Expecting You went on to become the U.K.'s best-selling album for 1998. According to Music Week, the album sold 2,582,016 copies in the U.K. as of November 2016. It has been certified 10× Platinum for shipments of 3 million copies, making it Williams' best-selling album in the country. Very much thrust into the limelight, Williams completed album promotion with a huge European tour in the autumn of 1999. In 2005, I've Been Expecting You was ranked 91st in a Channel 4 show celebrating the 100 greatest albums of all time. Boasting five singles and plenty of gold throughout the album, Robbie Williams’s I’ve Been Expecting You is twenty-five on 26th October. Some of the singles are still played on the radio, though I think this is an album that announced Williams as a serious songwriter and a fantastic artist. From the ego a go go of his 1997 debut, Life Thru a Lens, Williams stepped up a gear on 1998’s I’ve Been Expecting You and released an album that proved he was a musical…
PHOENIX from the flames.