"Sing when you're winning" is a beautiful album indeed. It shows a more mature Robbie, moving on from his past in Take That. Here's a breakdown of each individual song:

Let Love Be Your Energy: A great upbeat song that shows us that Robbie really can sing hard. It sends a great message and is great to play loudly while driving in your car with the windows down!

Better Man: A nice slow song. Robbie humbily admitting his shortcomings in life. Beautiful.

Rock DJ: Simply amazing dancy disco-y tune.

Supreme: A great number with some beautiful strings done to the melody of "I Will Survive." The words are different, with a very powerful chorus.

Kids: A duet with Kylie Minogue. Probably my favorite song on the CD. Another upbeat song with a very strong chorus.

If it's Hurting You: A nice and slow song with some country sounds to it.

Singing for the Lonely: Nice medium paced acustic ballad.

Love Calling Earth: Nice slow piano song with keyboards.

Knutsford City Limits: Good up-tempo song with a strong chorus.

Forever Texas: Awesome guitar song with hilarious lyrics that make fun of Texas hicks!

By All Means Necessary: Another pretty slow song.

The Road to Mandalay: A WONDERFUL closer. Kind of an acustic guitar British folk song. It'll have you going "buh buh buh ba ba ba ba baaaaah" in your head long after you listen to it.

Recently, David Bowie slagged Robbie Williams as "cruise ship pop." Coming from a man whose best selling album was Nile Rodgers-produced dance pop, Ziggy Stardust notwithstanding, I think I may want to take a cruise in the near future.

It's easy to call Robbie Williams the British male version of Britney Spears--after all, he sells bazillions of albums to screaming teenage girls, appears scantily clad on the covers of magazines, and even has that all-important Pepsi endorsement. But one listen to "Sing When You're Winning" quickly dispels the notion of Williams as a media-driven pop tart. This is a genuinely fun CD to listen to, with flashes of cheeky humor, infectious beats, interesting lyrics (written by Williams), and--gasp!--real instruments. "Rock DJ," which received some US airplay and some raised eyebrows over its ... um, stripped-down video, is a solid dance tune which again proves that any song that lifts the bass line from Barry White's classic "It's Ecstasy (When You Lay Down Next To Me)" is a good one. "Kids" has an awesome groove, and it's the first song that I've heard Kylie Minogue on that didn't make me want to slit my wrists immediately afterwards. There isn't one bad song on this album, from the near-country rock of "Forever Texas" to the poignant "If It's Hurting You" to the rousing "Let Love Be Your Energy." Williams has been compared to George Michael, but isn't nearly as outwardly consumed with respectability--he's a born performer with a sense of humor, and it shines through.

This CD was intended to be Williams' big Stateside break, and while it sold respectably (800,000 copies) it was by no means a monster, which is a shame. Even if you're not a big pop fan, you'll find a lot to like about "Sing When You're Winning." Do it for the kids!

Although not as instantly accessible as his last two albums, SWYW is definately a grower. His first album in the US was criminally ignored, with the sugar-pop artists dominating the charts. If you ever get a chance to see him live, you really can't miss it. He's a born entertainer

Here's the lowdown on the greatest pop album of the year:-

1. Let Love Be Your Energy - A very good song, gets better the more you hear it.

2. Better Man - A corker of a track (SWYW's 'Angels'), my joint favourite with 'Supreme'.

3. Rock DJ - You've probably heard this already, a good party track.

4. Supreme - My joint favourite, the way Robbie incorporates 'I Will Survive ' and the Rocky theme is genious. Absolutely fantastic lyrics.

5. Kids - This duet with Kylie Minogue takes time to grow on you but is very good. Robbie sings in a very high pitch, but it adds to the song, with the lines:-

Kylie "Come down from the ceiling" Robbie "I didn't mean to get so high"

This is the second track to be released as a single in the UK, complete with another great video.

6. If It's Hurting You - A bit too slow for me. A filler.

7. Singing For The Lonely - A great track, a bit different.

8. Love Calling Earth - Again really different, but a very good track.

9. Knutsford City Limits - Pure pop and a very good song. A personal song, he talks about his Northern roots.

10. Forever Texas - Pretty Catchy with good lyrics.

11. By All Means Necessary - Never really gets going, but some good lines.

12. The Road To Mandalay - Starts off slow but turns into a really catchy song. Forward this track for around 28mins for something hilarious

You really do have to get this album as well as his previous two (or one if you're in the US).

Robbie Williams is too often categorized along the same lines of the "boy bands" and fluff that dominate the airwaves today, but he is far above and beyond them. Let's see ... more intelligent lyrics (oh, and he writes his own songs!) and just plain great music. Sing While You're Winning is as good if not better than The Ego Has Landed, and "Rock DJ" is the most infectuous and catchy song I've heard in a long time. (Check out the video on the enhanced cd - it's classic.) RW manages to move impressively between the touching ballads like "If It's Hurting You" and "Better Man" to the rocking tracks like "Rock DJ" and "Let Love Be Your Energy." This guy is talented, and I hope we hear a lot more from him in the future.

I purchased "The Ego has Landed" on the advice of a Brittish friend, and was shocked to discover that it had not left my cd player for the past year and a half.

So naturally I found myself quite eager for the new albumn. And I was not dissapointed. It's stunning origional pop, washed down with well, the voice that you would expect from a boyband member who's done more than his share of things in the growing up process. Kind of like gin over gravel.

One of the great appeals of Sing When Your Winning is that it is pop for adults. I'm 24. Which may not be old in the cosmic sense, but is old enough that I seek some depth with my music.

Robbie Williams manages to have soul, heart, and a wicked sense of humor, all placed into one nice tidy package.

Buy this. You won't be disappointed.

E.