Winning and Swinging

Robbie Williams' Latest Opus

By Caitlyn Hallman

As readers learn in Robbie Williams’ biography Somebody Someday, the singer’s heroes are Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.  In Swing When You’re Winning, his latest CD, Williams sets out to pay tribute to these Rat Packers alongside other great crooners such a Bobby Darin and Nat “King” Cole.  The result is an album that is fun, loving, and very cool.

Upon the release of the CD, Williams’ producer and constant musical collaborator, Guy Chambers, stated that Swing When You’re Winning was a left turn in Robbie’s career, the reigning king of Brit Pop was suddenly changing genres.  He has endured flack from some musical critics who have called the album “self-indulgent,” but the collection is ultimately successful because one can hear that Williams is enjoying himself.  Unlike Williams’ earlier albums, which always feature several tracks that are mournful and self-accusatory, every track on this one joyful.  Even traditional torch songs such as “One for My Baby” lose some of their gloom and take on a bit of glee. 

The album was recorded in the Capital Records’ studio in Los Angeles, the same one used by the artists Williams is paying homage to, and many of the backing musicians used are the same who worked for Sinatra and Martin.  The atmosphere must have been magical, as Williams’ voice soars through each number.  His sound is well suited to the material.  Williams does not try to imitate his heroes, rather he brings his own style to the songs.  This is clearly his best album vocally to date.  Williams rather easily manages his way through both Sinatra’s sweeping melodies and Martin’s crisper, jazzier sounds.

Highlights include: “Something Stupid,” Willliams duet with Nicole Kidman, which is sexy and sweet (so much so that it has sprung many a rumor in regards to the true nature of the pair’s relationship), “Straighten Up and Fly Right” perhaps as the liner notes say “the most touching song ever written about a monkey and a buzzard,” and “My Shadow and Me,” which Williams performs with his real life best friend, Jonathon Wilkes.

One reviewer called the album “glorified karaoke,” but you never heard karaoke this good in your local bar.  For one thing is certain, Mr. Williams really knows how to swing.