 | | Take That – Beautiful World |
Only it’s lacking a big slice of that glory. There may be the opportunity to finally find out what would happen if all four of the lads wrote the tunes, but just like the matching haircuts that Mark, Jason and Howard are sporting, there’s a lack of diversity in the songs. There’s also a lack of quality. There’s little doubt that the epic Patience is up to the man band’s former standards, but elsewhere, things get decidedly ropey. Bizarrely, the album opens with their weakest song, the distinctly bland Reach Out. Even the aforementioned lead single, sitting snugly behind it, doesn’t fully make up the shortfall. Things continue to slide downhill until one of the two tracks that make you see a full future for the lads, rather than just nostalgic roll-outs, the Queen-meets-The-Beatles fun of Shine, led by a strong vocal from Mark. Between that and the excellent closer Wooden Boat, a slow-burning tearjerker that sees Jason take lead vocals for the first time, there’s a glimpse of why the solo careers faltered. Could they have been expected to don the leather chaps again or throw themselves through disco routines? Well no, but an over-reliance on ballads and a distinct lack of the playfulness that brought them to our hearts and heads originally means that it’s heavy-going at times, particularly during the well-intentioned but utterly mawkish Mancunian Way. Did we expect too much? Probably. Nothing was going to live up to the fireworks and fulfilment of seeing them in the summer. Beautiful World is an acceptable pop record with a couple of stand-out moments. If it’d been anyone else, they’d have got away with it. That said, it’s better than Robbie’s last two efforts and that’s something they should be proud of. | 
