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Dot Music

Musically and vocally, there's few surprises but at least lyrically he's moved on from clever-ish wordplay and inane love songs, to tell tales of being generally screwed-up at the hands of the multi-million dollar pop machine.

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Stylus Magazine

More than anything in his career, Escapology is literally riddled with confession and confusion.

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Entertainment Weekly

Occasionally, Williams even manages candor without cockiness.

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Q Magazine

His straitjacket is an entrenched reliance on "lighters aloft" ballads, or, ironically, Oasis-derived anthems. [Dec 2002, p.113]

Rolling Stone

While 2000's Sing When You're Winning was a trashy masterpiece that the States ignored, Escapology sounds like a more self-conscious effort to craft a pop-rock blockbuster.

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E! Online

It doesn't help that the best song here, "Feel," sounds like a bad Richard Ashcroft B-side; the worst is a seven-minute mariachi stomp about traveling to Las Vegas with a monkey, called "Me and My Monkey."

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All Music Guide

Backed by stale songs, formulaic arrangements, and mediocre songwriting, Williams is forced to rely on his volcanic personality to bring this album across -- and despite a few strong performances, he sinks into lame self-parody time and time again.

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PopMatters

Probably the weakest Robbie Williams album to date.

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Playlouder

An unholy brew of overreaching ambition and soul-destroying complacency.

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New Musical Express

Like Eminem, Williams is desperate to give his own spin on tabloid coverage and determined to prove himself as human as the rest of us, but incapable of letting us forget he's a star. Except Eminem is the voice of a generation while Robbie Williams is just the voice of Robbie Williams, and while Eminem has Dre, Robbie has a ramshackle posse of musicians roped in to create this album's (wait for it) 'spontaneous' live sound.

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Blender

Being shallow and immature is both his strength and his weakness. [Apr 2003, p.131]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

naji a gave it a10:
its amazing

Killa Ben gave it an8:
This is a great album to sing along to if you're trying to learn. Especially 'Love Somebody' and 'Some Kind of Beautiful'. Definitely go with the UK vesion, though- U.S. version omitts some great tracks.

Oliver gave it a0:
i love the ways brits are always running down the yanks for not "getting" their sophisticated brand of humour... as an outsider, i don't think robbie williams is funny, or clever... he's just a singer of no substance with bland songs culled from decades of retro pop, dressed up in slick modern production... oh and for everyone who keeps on harping on the sarcasm angle, it happens to be the lowest form of wit... and robbie isn't even very good at it...

Dave gave it a2:
I'm a big fan of Robbie Williams and British pop in general, but this cd is truly painful to listen to. Very disappointing.

Amy T gave it a 10:
The reason this album will be lost on most Americans is the lack of the ability to understand sarcasm and the complete inability to be self depreciating. This is Robbie's whole persona... the cocky/cheeky stage presence is the whole value of Robbie - not to mention a strong singing ability. In a world where Dylan with the personality and entertainment value of a turnip and the voice of a cheese grater can be glorified - Robbie is well worth my entertain budget.

Kiwi J gave it a 5:
If the plan was to break Williams in the States, recording his most British album to date probably wasn't such a great move. Whilst its radio friendly melodies should have proved popular, the typically sardonic and "humorous" lyrics simply don't travel very well, and would have left most American listeners non-plussed. Add to that the fact that too many tracks simply sound the same and you have a deeply average album.

Mark Y gave it a 7:
I think this album is almost brilliant - granted , there are one or two bland tracks but the gems more than make up for it (something beautiful/me and my monkey). An entertaining album from a great entertainer ... nothing more - nothing less.

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Escapology

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