This week on The Collection, we talk Robbie Williams. With the news of a new album and some new songs including one with Tony Iommi, I thought let’s go back to the beginning and talk about his debut ‘Life Thru A Lens”. I have two box sets of that album. One is a 4CD set and the other is 7 – 7″ Singles Box Sox Set. We go through it all and talk about the album and the songs. If you remember songs like “Angels”, “Let Me Entertain You” and “Ego a Go Go”, then come along for the ride.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 14, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.
Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed out on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together. This box set I bought when Udiscovermusic.com had a 50% off sale and I couldn’t pass it up.
What we get with this Box Set are not one, but 7 different 7″ singles. There are so many great songs on here. While Take That was pretty much ballads, Robbie was all Britpop! And he does it pretty fucking well. Not only do you have the five great singles of “Old Before I Die” (written with Desmond Child and The Hooter’s own Eric Bazillian), “Lazy Days”, “South of the Border”, the beautiful ballad”Angels” as well as the Queen-esque “Let Me Entertain You”. All fantastic songs, but the best song on here wasn’t even a single which is the angry, funtastic song “Ego A Go Go”. The box set even has the hidden track “Hello Sir” which is Robbie reciting a poem telling off an old teacher who told him he wouldn’t amount to anything…boy was he wrong. You get the whole album over the singles plus 2 bonus tracks all in the order of the album. Some day I’ll do a proper review of it, but for now, these are the Seven Singles.
After a very tumultuous time in the boy band Take That, Robbie left the group, recorded an album and went in to rehab. Robbie’s drug problem and ego problem was too much for Take That. He was tired of his creative input being ignored and was ready to branch out on his own. And branch out he did. His first album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ was released on September 29, 1997 and though it started off slow, it would go on to great heights hitting #1 on the UK charts and selling over 3 million copies in Europe.
Now, we peasants here in the States, knew nothing about Robbie and sadly that would continue throughout most of his career. He had some moderate success with a few songs, but for the most part, the U.S. missed on on a hugely talented guy. I’m glad to say, I didn’t miss out. I discovered him a few years later with the songs “Millennium” and “Rock DJ” and I was hooked. But we aren’t here to talk about the albums those songs were on. Nope. We are here to talk about the 25th Anniversary Edition of his debut album, ‘Life Thru a Lens’ and what a box set he put together.
For my last You Pick It vote, I had a tie between Queensryche’s ‘Hear in the Now Frontier’ and with Saigon Kick’s ‘The Lizard’. Last week reviewed Queensryche and this week, as promised, we have Saigon Kick. Mike Ladano from MikeLadano.com agreed to tag team with me here and he is also reviewing this album so go check it out as it came out today as well. Go to Mike’s Lizard Review here.
Saigon Kick had a problem in 1992. Mis-labeling was their problem. Due to their massive power ballad hit, “Love is On the Way”, they got dumped in to the 80’s Glam Rock scene (or Hair Metal) when in fact, they were not even close to anything that sounded like that. People who bought this thinking it was the next Danger Danger, Trixter or maybe even Bon Jovi were surprised at what they heard. They weren’t Grunge either so they were a band that had no real marketable identity at the time. They were alternative, but to melodic for them and not metal enough for the glam. What a weird place to be. The timing sucked for them as well with the Glam scene dying at an alarmingly fast rate and Grunge taking over, just where did this band fit in the mold.
Saigon Kick’s sophomore album, ‘The Lizard’, was a diverse collection of rock songs that defied classification. The songs were so well crafted, so mature and unlike anything else at the time. The closest band I would say would be Extreme as they were also had a diverse, eclectic set of songs and because of their ballads also got lumped in to the Hair scene, unfairly as well I might add. The band was Matt Kramer (Vocals), Jason Bieler (Guitar, keyboard), Tom DeFile (Bass) and Phil Varone Drums). The bands second album saw Jason step up and produce the album and do most of the heavy lifting with the songwriting as he wrote all the music and had his hand in all but three of the songs on the lyrics. The album was released on June 2, 1992 and sold well, going to #1 on the Heatseekers Album Chart and #80 on the Billboard 200 chart. It did get certified Gold selling over 500,000 copies some time around 1996 though.
I was a fan of that ballad I mentioned earlier, but back in the day, I didn’t buy this album. I didn’t buy it until last year after I saw Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler in concert together. They played mostly Saigon Kick songs and I had forgotten how great those songs were so I ran out and bought the band’s first three albums off Rock Candy. This version of the album has massive liner notes all new for this reissue and a bonus track. To top it off, thanks to the clout of The LeBrain Train show, I was able to snag Jason Bieler for an interview and Mike Ladano and I interviewed him for that show. It was a lot of fun and great diving in to his career.
You, my reader, are going to pick an album for me to review each month. It is really simple…first, I will give you 5 albums to choose from and second, you will tell me which one of those you would like to see reviewed on the site. See…simple! Now, if you want to cast more than one vote, comment on the Twitter and Facebook post and you could get up to 3 votes on your favorite pick.
There are a few simple rules I have put in to place in my selections. They are…
One has to be a new release (within the last month)
One has to be one I have never heard before (new releases don’t count for this one)
One has to be from a genre I don’t normally listen to at all or very often
And the last two are choices from my collection that I haven’t reviewed before
What are the 5 albums you ask? Funny you should ask because I have those right here…
New Release – Journey – ‘Freedom’
Never Heard Before – Metallica – ‘Kill ‘Em All’
Not My Normal Genre – Kris Kristofferson – ‘Kristofferson‘
From My Collection – Robin Trower – ‘Twice Removed from Yesterday’
From My Collection – Hollywood Undead – ‘Swan Song’
Let me know which one you would like to see and sometime in August, I will post a review of the album that gets the most votes. You have one week to decide and from there I will start listening to the album and do a review.
New Release – Journey – ‘Freedom’
Never Heard Before – Metallica – ‘Kill ‘Em All’
Not My Normal Genre – Kris Kristofferson – ‘Kristofferson‘
From My Collection – Robin Trower – ‘Twice Removed from Yesterday’
From My Collection – Hollywood Undead – ‘Swan Song’
2 Loud 2 Old Music 