Progress

It's confession time. Take That are my guilty pleasure. I don't mind certain pop music, but primarily my musical tastes revolve around hard rock and alternative metal.
With that in mind, I set about impartially reviewing the sixth studio album from Take That. "Progress" is their third album since their much publicised reunion and the first to feature Robbie Williams in 15 years.

Let's get one thing clear from the start then. "Progress" sounds nothing like "Beautiful World or "The Circus." Both of those records were classic ballad oriented pop rock and both were multi platinum sellers.
"Progress" however is straight up electronic pop, with just a couple of songs the exception. Robbie's vocals are heavily present on many of the tracks; you could argue in fact that the sound of his last two solo albums rather dominates proceedings.

I certainly don't blame Take That for trying something new, but I really wasn't impressed on first listen. If there's one thing I've learned though it's that you never judge a new record on first listen, sure enough second and third time around I started to hear pleasurable music my ears missed the first time.

Lead single "The Flood" is classic Take That, a real epic pop song with a searing chorus, I'm surprised this failed to knock Rihanna's "Only Girl (In The World)" of the number one spot in the singles chart this week, but it could easily climb one especially after ITV's documentary and a performance on the X-Factor.
Beyond that, "SOS" is an uptempo number and likely second single, before the electronic influences really show face on "Kidz," "Pretty Things" and "Underground Machine."

Take That's customary piano ballad does finally show up at track 10 "Eight Letters," it provides a welcome break from the electronic rhythms and closes the album superbly.
As is standard these days however, hidden track "Flowerbed" shows up after a minute or so of silence on the disc, with Jason taking lead vocals.

One other noteworthy track is "What Do You Want From Me?" Mark takes lead vocals here and the lyrics seem personal to him, especially after his well documented relationship misdemeanours earlier this year.

In summary, "Progress" is an impressive album.
It doesn't quite deserve five stars for me though; I believe both their previous albums to be superior.
Somehow though it's very difficult to be overly negative about a Take That record, the boys have delivered an album that maybe wasn't what they initially had in mind but there's no doubting that "Progress" is another multi platinum seller in waiting.

Best Tracks: "The Flood" "SOS" "Eight Letters"

I have always admired Take That, and seen them as a level above the rest of their pretenders, but this is the first of their albums that I have actually purchased. I guess I did it partly becauise I loved 'The Flood' (single) and partly because I love the story of Robbie and the band, where a bona-fide superstar gets some humble and returns to the origins of his now fully blossomed talent, sharing his skills with a group, and the credit and adoration aforded by fans in the process. This is something that rarely happens in the music world at this level, and perhaps never will again. People can say he was a fading force and needed this, but lets not kid ourselves, Robbie needs nothing of the sort, and is only a minor re-invention of himself away from being at the pinacle again. He still can be whatever he wants, and this took some sacrifice on his part in my opinion.

It will be difficult to get a true idea of how good this album is from the opinions of fans themselves with so many split on Robbie coming back. Many people will hate on this record simply beacuse they didn't want to see their baby changed or hold a grudge. I agree with others that they were due a change after two similar albums. Robbie brings the rebel back to Take that, and that was missing for a long time. If you look at the profile of the four other band members, that personality type (and its input) was a gaping hole, even if they were able to make sweet music up until now.

In a time of so much mediocrity, where there is so little creativity, Take That have broken new territory, and continue to define the way forward, and in this instance I feel they owe a debt to Robbie for taking them there. His hallmark is clearly stamped across this album, and despite what has been said by others about him 'dominating procedures', I feel he should be a strong presence given his re-emergence, and that as per the title of the album, this is all about change, progress. Robbie should be portrayed as an integral part of Take That, and having him feature prominently goes some way to doing that. It is also worth keeping in mind that its probably important to the band and others carrying a financial interest in them that the Robbie fans are brought on board, and I say fair enough. It's interesting that people didn't seem to complain too much about Gary dominating previously, I have no issues with him taking a back seat for a change.

If you havent got it, go do so, and like others have said, give it more than one listen before paying judgement, as so much of the subleties come out that was. The lyrical content in this album goes to a higher level that has been seen previosuly from them, and you also only get that from investment in listening over time.

Hmmm... I have mixed feelings about this album. On first listen I have to say I was extremely disappointed and thought Robbie had completely taken over, but I decided to give it a chance, listen to it a few more times and try to let the music grow on me. To be honest, being a rock chick at heart I prefer the soft rock/pop anthemic sound of Take That's previous two albums rather than this electro style, but I suppose a change in musical direction keeps us on our toes. The problem is, I have always had reservations about Robbie returning to the fold and I really think, after hearing this album, it was probably a mistake. The two previous albums TT released as a foursome were far superior to this.

The first single to be lifted from the album 'The Flood' is, of course, classic Take That, and 'SOS' and 'Kidz' are ok. My favourite has to be 'Eight Letters' though, absolutely beautiful.

One thing though, why does Mark get so many solos when his vocals aren't, in my opinion, all that great? Gary has such a beautiful voice and yet he doesn't feature on this album half as much as I was hoping.

All in all though I suppose this is worth a listen so that you can make up your own mind. I'm giving it 3 stars.