Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams 
 Amazon on Be a Boy, the opening salvo of his latest album – one that many will label a comeback. Given that Williams has sold out a run of three shows at London's O2 Arena this month in less than an hour, it's safe to say that the glitter of Take That's record-breaking second reunion has stuck to the clown prince of British pop. If you cup your hand to your ear, the multi-tracked sigh of relief is audible all the way from LA. The formerly troubled star is now a happily married father of one, but his needy bluster continues to fascinate.G

The pixie dust doesn't quite settle uniformly on …the Crown. After a pair of quirky records on which Williams chased a nostalgic synth-pop sound, Take the Crown marks a return to mainstream anthemics, with all the wearingly obvious moves that entails. His new co-writers are Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis of Australian band the Undercolours; his brother-in-law met them in a bar, or so Williams told Music Week. Collectively, Team Williams (producer Jacknife Lee is on board, too) struggle to find a copper-bottomed, gut-feel voice for Robbie 2.0, settling for a variety of puzzling gambits that miss as often as they hit.