Robbie Williams - Life Thru A Lens (UK Release)

When Life Thru A Lens came out, Robbie Williams was a swiftly-failing music industry joke--"Blobbie Pill-iams", the ballooning drug-freak, drunk and bleary-eyed at far too many parties for his own good.

Although his cover of George Micheal's "Freedom" had gone in at Number 2, "Old Before I Die" and "South Of The Border" sounded too like weak-tea Oasis for any real chart action and people were starting to talk about him as a failure.

Then the elegiac "Angels" with its simple black-and-white video hit MTV pay-dirt, and six months later Williams was picking up six BRIT Awards, showing off his post-rehab six-pack and dating an All Saint. And so the rest of Life Thru A Lens is a likable, hyperactive stream of consciousness--much like Williams himself.

"Lazy Days" is an unexpectedly gorgeous psychedelic swoon, and "Let Me Entertain You"--"When I'm Cleaning Windows" for the Hooch generation--is still an irresistible offer. Caitlin Moran