Artiste: Robbie Williams
Album: Better Man (OST)
Rating: *****
The pop music survivor returns in full glory. Robbie Williams’s music is a story of survival and redemption with a touch of ego and a dash of grandiosity. Out on the big screen is a biopic that deserves a watch as much as a listen to the soundtrack. Better Man recalls the story of Williams’s rise, fall and rise but the narrative is anything but conventional. His hits have been reimagined to fit different stages of his life while he takes creative liberty in the way he is portrayed — as a CGI chimpanzee. It’s complicated. Williams lends his voice to the narrative but in the flesh is English actor Jonno Davies, who blends a physicality that merges a chimpanzee and a swaggering sex symbol.
We will stick to the musical element here. For instance, Feel is sung by a younger version of Williams watching his dad abandon him. His emotions are naked, allowing the narrative to visit dark corners, meant for dark deeds.
The film captures the singer’s youth in Stoke-on-Trent, his years in the British group Take That, his drug abuse years, celebrity feuds and dramas and then redemption.
Relight My Fire is among the last big Take That numbers Robbie had a major role in. It helps the film move away to Robbie’s solo career.
His version of My Way — a song that became associated with Frank Sinatra — plays a special role as it highlights the relationship between the singer and his father Peter; it underscores Robbie’s personal arc.
Feel is another song that deserves a mention. It’s sung by a younger version of Robbie (then still only known as Robert) and it plays out more like a dirge but it also marks the transition from a younger version of the singer into a more recognisable figure.
Of course, the soundtrack would be incomplete without Angels, which plays after the singer finds out that his grandmother has died. It’s one of the most emotional moments of the soundtrack. This is a soundtrack about pop stardom and it doesn’t disappoint.
Artiste: Bad Bunny
Album: Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Rating: *****
It is the most Puerto Rican album Bad Bunny has released and you can’t help but shake up the room and your life. It’s a guilty pleasure. He sets the mood with NeuvaYol, which celebrates salsa but at the same time, makes it a dance-floor smash — melding reggaeton reworking with a flooring-the-pedal outro. It’s a reminder that summer is around the corner.
Whatever you could be looking for in a Latin album is here, be it synthesizers ringing out memorable melodies and arpeggios that sound digital. And let’s not forget shimmering Spanish guitars.
The 17-track album, coming with live instruments, is wholly in Puerto Rican, and features several young collaborators — urbano from the singer RaiNao (Perfumito Nuevo); reggaeton and Latin trap from Omar Courtz and DeiV (Veldá); and conventional rhythms like plena and bomba from Pleneros de la Cresta (Café Con Ron), besides a young band Chuwi (Weltita).
A personal favourite is DTMF which punches Nintendo-inspired beats with lively plena, a Puerto Rican genre. The singer’s philosophy of life has changed quite a lot: Ya no estamo’ pa’ la movie’ y las cadena/ ’Tamos pa’ las cosa’ que valgan la pena (“we’re no longer about the flashy stuff and chains/ We’re here for the things that are truly worth it”).
Another memorable track is Baile Inolvidable, highlighting his take on salsa, combined with powerful lyrics: No, no te puedo olvidar/No, no te puedo borrar/Tú me enseñaste a querer/Me enseñaste a bailar or “No, I can’t forget you/No, I can’t erase you/You taught me how to love/You taught me how to dance”. Simple yet complex, defiant but highly enjoyable.
Artiste: Ringo Starr
Album: Look Up
Rating: ****
Despite being an album from The Beatles drummer, the material is very different from what you have heard from the Fab Four. He continues to infuse a light-heartedness into his music and champion optimism and love.
The 10-track country album is reflective but most of the material is about enjoying the highs of life. There is a simple rhyming structure on most of the tracks, be it Breathless with Billy Strings or Time On My Hands. The feathery guitar tones on I Live for Your Love accompany simple lyrics: I don’t live in the future/ I don’t live in the past/ I live for your love. It’s charming.
His first album in six years is a collection of 11 original tracks that were recorded last year in Nashville and Los Angeles.
The final track, Thankful (co-written by Starr and features Alison Krauss), is wistful as he hopes “for more peace and love”: I put my life into your hands/ And you made me a better man.
Needless to say, Starr plays drums through all the tracks but he also does a wonderful job in the vocals department with help from some friends, like on Rosetta (with Billy Strings and Larkin Poe) he sings of “stopping the clocks”.
This is not his first country gig, yet it feels different from his past work. Thoughtful lyrics, warm vocals and always emotional. Sure, at times the element of sameness will be felt but Starr’s sincerity cannot be doubted.