After a detour and a bout of stomach flu, I’m finally going to end off my Robbie Williams overview with my current favourite song of his.1 The first time I heard this song its plaintiveness and soaring vocal kicked me in the gut. I just adore the lyrics. I took it to my then vocal coach and we worked on it so now I can sing it in multiple keys.2
This track appears on the 2002 Escapology album alongside Feel and I will never understand why it wasn’t a single. I couldn’t even find a live performance of the song. Why? It’s so beautiful. It’s a classic Williams/Guy Chambers partnership with a gorgeously simple piano running through the piece, slowly building as orchestral bits gets added in. It simply soars.
I was able to find Williams’ concept of the song, which he talked about at the album’s release:
I do want to love somebody. I don’t want to go out any more. I’d like to settle down now. We wrote it in the Bahamas and I didn’t like the verse, but then we dug it out and re-wrote the verses and all of a sudden it fell into place. I’d been listening to The Windmills Of Your Mind and the verses are definitely my homage to that: '“there’s not enough minutes in an hour, or hours in the day… a song played in a circle that never skips a beat… a stranger in the country I have yet to meet…” Enigmatic paradoxes.
This one is my favourite lyric. For me, it sums up the push/pull of being in love.
And it's hope that springs eternal for everyone
Your lifetime in a second
All the damage done
Enjoy your song of the day!
I haven’t listened to every album so this might change.
I keep switching keys to find what fits best for my voice, which keeps changing as my voice does.
I've been on a huge Robbie kick since seeing "Better Man".