Life Thru A Lens

You're kidding me, right?

I don't know man, this album just pissed me off.

Baaaaaad

Released at the fag end of Britpop, a cynical attempt to make stadium pop with echoes of the Dublin Castle. Sub-Oasis (and that's a low bar) - sneering vocals like Liam, really obvious tunes - Ego A Go Go. He's like Tommy Steele - an all-round entertainer, playing a rock and roller, and entirely unconvincing in the role. "To me it's magic, to the landlord it's tragic" - one of many clunking, lazy rhymes.

Just terrible. Generic ass music with cringy angst lyrics and nursery tier rhymes. I’m glad America won the revolutionary war so that we don’t have to be exposed to this garbage on our airwaves

I echo ben’s sentiment. This wasn’t good

Committed to getting through the albums I missed, which has lead me to skewering this guy on a random Sunday. About 40 minutes into this I started questioning if I actually liked music. Never heard of this fella, but saw his name in the news lately for making a biopic where he’s played by a CGI monkey. Based on this album alone I’m going to say that Robbie Williams is a douche. Jim Jeffries of music maybe, his brand is that he’s a wild rocker. At times the vibe is a 16 year old with a Clash T-shirt. I was particularly bothered by the Elton John impression on his ballad “Angels”. It doesn’t help matters that what he’s going for is Brit Pop, which I’m not learning I don’t enjoy. Two thumbs down on Life Through a Lense.

I genuinely tried, but couldn’t get into this. And to think Robbie Williams is the best selling singer songwriter of all time in the UK 😂 Idk, it felt like even the hits (Angel) weren’t interesting. Some of the singing was great

I hated this

Who made this list? Make it stop.

If you've ever wondered what kind of ego it takes to sustain a cocaine habit so ferocious you can namecheck both Kate Moss and Charlie Sheen, look no further.

How is this on the list?!

This is just bad oasis

Lyrics are awful.

I drew this album after 2 other mediocre dull british electronic albums and to be honest, I'm reaching my breaking point here. Had I gotten this after a truly great album I might be more receptive to this overproduced pop crap, but today is not that day. I won't be finishing this.

What’s the point?

Found this grating... I know there are some 'classic' pop songs of the era on the album but overall it was bad.

I just can’t. I listened to an entire Train album. That’s enough lame rock for me.

Over-rated utter horse shit.

Can't stand the man

Takes a lot from Elton but doesn't create anything interesting out of it.

This sounds like fake music from a movie, like the actor is trying generate a comeback album and this is what the writers came up with. Think Bill Nighy in Love, Actually. Absolute joke, why is this on the list.

Rubbish

What is this bullshit. Too bad there's no option for zero stars.

"Incredibly generic...." Albumin geneerisyyttä ei sovi ottaa huomioon... tämä tappaa demokratian eli enemmistön vallan... jos enemmistö lälläpopittaa albumin biisiä radiossa tarkoittanee tämä pelkästään objoktusfoorumin ulkopupoellle jäävän osuuden kasvavan... ihmiset tarttuvat miekkoihin ja sotivat enemmistöä vastaan... sankaritarinaako tässä... ukr-rus....Ukr get the russian cap.... mitä luulet arvostelusi tuovan tähän maailmaan... Noh mutta totta tosiaan kyllähän tämä yhtä tähteä obj...

Really? Why is this on the list?

Kinda weird!

Really did not enjoy it. All of it felt like filler run of the mill pop content. Even Angels, normally a pretty good song, didn't stand out much because it was right in the middle of the album.

Robbie sounds like an ex boy band member trying to hard too shake that old image

If you don't think mid-career Oasis is bloated and bland enough you'll love this album. I always thought he was more of a post boy band ballad singer and didn't realize he had this much of a rock sound, but this is basically a low effort brit pop album with a touch of blink 182 and smashmouth. Angels is laboratory engineered to manipulate the mawkish sentimentality English people confuse with emotion.

Could have been worse

Please stop

This album is laughably bad.

This album made me wish I could be at a concert of this album with my friend, Dave. Dave has a great laugh—we would’ve been doubled over for hours at some of the cringey lyrics on this album. Seriously, Baby Girl Window is a title of a song? Alas, I had to listen alone. I’m new to this list of albums and have a lot of listening to do, but c’mon. Artists have been releasing full albums since the 50’s. How are some of these albums making the top 1001 you have to listen to before you die? There have got to be plenty of great albums to chose from. A little surprised at what’s making the cut.

What the fuck was this

No.

The only Robbie Williams song I like (Millennium) isn't on this album so that deducts huge points. The rest is British douchiness that was way too prevalent in the late 90s. Hey Robert Dimery. Not everything Britain makes music wise is great. This was utter tosh.

This whole album manages to sound extremely generic and VERY annoying at the same time. I’m on Track 2 and the lead singer is really getting on my nerves. Track 1 did not… inspire confidence. Some of those transitions were waaaay too calculated. We have 45 minutes to go! Oh boy. Carson says Budget Coldplay, I get strong vibes of Budget Blur. And Budget Blur… is really something you don’t want to be budgeting on. I don’t like to do this, normally. Such direct comparisons invite trivializing the whole, no doubt laborious, complicated artistic affair. But this really is a trivial album. And it’s flippant and unserious and clearly trend-chase-y. So I’m also allowed to be a little unserious, too. 1/5. Get this off the list! Posthaste!

How is this on the list with some all-time classic albums???

Wtf, how could this even be on the list?!?

Åh gud nei...

I could do without this album. Gave me a headache.

No. You're being silly.

I love dogshit britrock

No fucking way. This is shit, Mary.

Fucking awful. Nearly had a heart attack when I saw the last track was 14 minutes.

pop cinicism

This is bad. . . It may prompt me to quit this service and find a different list of albums. What an absolutely awful record.

I entered this with an open mind. This closed it.

Trur detta albumet hadde ein signifikant negativ påvirkning på livsgleden min i mine yngre daga, og da e mulig Robbie skylde meg et par leveår

Let Me Entertain You is actually hilariously bad.

Can't stand it.

Wtf is this bullshit? No fucking way am I sitting through this horrendous pop crap. Fuck the dipshit who added this to the list.

Well that was a waste of bandwidth.

I honestly couldn't make it through the album. I was hating it from the get go and then had to stop on track 3 after the lyrics "cover me in your golden shower". Why is there so many shitty British 90s rock albums on this list? What a load of piss.

This is objectively bad music in every way. I can't see how this was, has been or ever could be consequential to anyone. Just a garbage fire over here. I would give this 0 out of 5 stars if I could.

Did not enjoy this. I don't like his voice, and the whole album sounded like knockoffs of songs I might enjoy (or might roll my eyes at) rewritten with painfully rhymey lyrics.

irredeemable garbage from start to finish

"your conversation's boring as hell" well how would you describe this song Robbie A lot of this album kind of makes me think of how when Ryan Adams covered 1989 and Calum Scott covered "Dancing On My Own"* they seemed to inexplicably (or explicably) get a lot of critical acclaim. Probably because I saw that this album doesn't actually contain his first (hit) single which was a cover of "Freedom" by George Michael that strips out all of the character found in the original, and imo this album has a similar lack of experimentation and personal style. I was gonna give it a 2 until I got to the secret spoken word poem. *I'm honestly still not over how one of my closest "nearly got run over as a pedestrian" incidents was a young man in a minivan, in a parking lot, absolutely zooming through the path where I was clearly visible, with this song version blasting out loud through the entirely-fully-down windows. The Gen Z twinks don't know who Robyn is and it's leading to the downfall of Western society

I've given this two stars because, if you like this sort of thing - and I most emphatically do not - then I guess there are a couple of hit singles which people enjoyed... On second thoughts, one star because I cannot stand Robbie WIlliams' music.

I really hope Spotify doesn't include this listen in their algorithms.

Felt somehow bland, like it was created by AI and was trying to be emotional. Just felt off and forced. Not a fan of this artist even though I know he's huge in the UK

crap

I listened with an open mind since I had never heard of this guy, but no, could not find anything to like about it. Not sure how it wound up on this list to be honest

This album is just really overproduced boring pop-rock (with an emphasis on the pop). The lyrics are bad and cheesy, not really sure what the creators of this list sees in this album that would warrant it being included on this list. Standout Tracks: N/A

Shite thru a lens

Nope. Not good. Kinda feels like he heard Oasis and thought, "I reckon I could do that better by making the songs less interesting and more shallow, but poppier." Did I seriously hear my dude sing a line about living long enough to see the Pope get high? Sheezus...

Oh boy britpop but poppier. That'll fix it.

god PLEASE eeeNUFF of this mediocre british NONSENSE!!!!!!!! I’M FUCKING TIRED OF IT!!!!! I GET IT!!!!!!! YOU’RE FUCKING BRITISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GET OVER IT IDC YR NOT THAT IMPORTANT!!!!!!! seriously why is this shit in the list. ?¿ is every fucking british album ever made in this list or…?

Really? Ffs, I think this book might be overrated.

Something doesn’t add up here

No matter how bad an album may be, there's bound to be a scenario where it could serve some purpose. The CIA used Springsteen for torture music, Backstreet Boys could be serviceable work-out music in a pinch, and even a shitty band like Coldplay could seamlessly fade to the background of a shopping mall's ambience. But THIS. I can't think of any viable scenario where this would be of any use to anyone whatsoever. If for some reason you still have some old AOL discs hanging around, take them along with this Robbie Williams mess, and hang 'em up in your background to scare crows away. 🐦‍⬛

Seriously? This is just shit.

Rock / Pop with the rough edges taken off. Good production and I can see why it had a big audience. Not for me though. 1/5.

Not for me. Seems vapid and the singer seems pretentious.

When some music hits you, you do feel pain.

0 if I could.

Holy shit this is a bad album. Why would this piece of britpop shit be an album that "everyone should hear before they die", unless it was to make sure that everyone is exposed to middle of the road bad music made by rich English people? 1/5

Now this is really bad, I thought I could find it a bit enjoyable but nah, it’s shit. I have a friend whose favorite artist is Robbie lol, he does not know shot about music in the slightest.

Is it terrible that I can't remember anything about this alum 24 hours later?

Je m'attendais à rien, je suis quand même déçu

Fade

I moved from Australia to London in 1997. Back then we had a huge alternative music scene in Oz, fueled in part by a national youth radio station dedicated to Indie and Alternative music. I'd never heard of Take That and no-one I knew talked about pop music at all. I'm sure some people knew who Robbie Williams was but for me he was in a world I could happily ignore. UK was a different beast - no real alternative radio (apart from bits of pieces on BBC and the ill-fated XFM) - the Xmas number one was a huge thing, boy bands and girl bands dominated the radio and press. Robbie was part of that machine, and that machine helped make this plastic piece of piss popular. This is muzak, a pop star searching for cred.

I was dreading this as soon as I saw I had this album today but I tried to be optimistic, thinking it must be an alright pop album. I still didn’t enjoy it at all, though. I don’t care if there are two big singles off of this album, they aren’t enough to make up for anything here so it’s a no for me, dawg. It’s nothing groundbreaking or original, the lyrics are dumb and his voice is grating. Sure, this is completely subjective based on hearing about him since my childhood, but it’s also my rating.

I really hated this. Post-britpop/hyper-britpop, and I don't care for britpop. It's super bad. 1/5

UK 90s hit parade pop is non-comparable with the decade before, and this is another "late" album that seems to be selected on basis of sale numbers. At its best moments the albums it sounds like an Elton John record but even a bit more sentimental. That could be nice though, but the songs themselves are just not so memorable.

This is a boring album. The music felt like royalty free music that you would find in like a movie or something. I was not feeling anything from this album. Favorite song: Older before I die Worst song: Baby girl window

fuckin hell m8, pour a glass oot for oor gar'barlow whose bin absilutily forgoten by this shity list for a two bit mug lit bobbi williums let me entirtain you? nah mate, pyure angliphyle pish

NBz No PL adds. No jive.

Really, really awful.

Eeeew. Dross! How did this even make the list?! Just no.

BRUH, mid as fuck the only thing impressive about this album is that his career didn’t end after this like shit, this dude’s got no talent, he didn’t play any instruments, he didn’t write any songs, all he can do is sing with his mediocre voice, that’s all he has to show off like yeah, Oasis has similar vocal quality, but they’re a whole-ass band that can write actually good songs the quality is so mediocre on this and the only thing he can do is sing, it’s just embarrassing listening to this and the fact that the working title for this album was “The Show-Off Must Go On” makes this clusterfuck even more laughable I’m giving this a 2/10, and that feels generous

Nope

dom flesta andra album som jag gett ettor kan jag nånstans förstå varför dom finns med i boken men det här är ju bara tråkig pop som tusentals andra album i samma era och genre?

No. Just no.

Get fucked.

Gud va dehä stinker....liksom FR varför är det här på listan? Vad för inflytande har denna skiva? Instrumenten låter (bortsett från nån sång på akustisk gitarr) totalt färglösa, herr Williams är inte en bra/intressant sångare, låttexterna är skräp, och albumet har bokstavligen ingenting nytt att säga!! Robert Dimerys smak är usel då han inte väljer klassiker.

Easier to take if you pretend you are Tina Belcher but I did not like this. Laughably bad lyrics; "I hope I live to see the day the Pope gets high" made me snort.

The album only contain a couple of good songs, in general bad

Technically a 'did not listen' but I've heard it on many a car ride with my mum as a child. I've got a profound dislike of Robbie Williams and things similar due to that kind of over exposure and it just being very not what I'm in to.

Only half was on Spotify. That wasn’t a bad thing.

Terrible. Honestly don’t know why it’s in the book.

Played at my old job too much

Literally an inch better than George Michael´s Faith, and that´s it. Find both horrible to hear. Although I have given 2 stars for George, which now I regret, because he sings better.

No thank you.

How did this make it on the list? Did he pay to be on here? Killing Me is the only good song, and even then. CANDY AND ROCK DJ AREN'T EVEN ON HERE. Looks v hot on the album cover though.

Dopo i primi 2 minuti il senso di morte e dolore era forte e volevo che la fine arrivasse il prima possibile. Poi forse perché c'ho fatto l'orecchio o perché lavorando non ho prestato troppa attenzione sono arrivato in fondo abbastanza velocemente. Innanzitutto bisogna dire che il sound anni 90 era veramente terribile, in questo disco a tratti ho sentito alcune soluzioni di arrangiamento e produzioni interessanti però a servizio di un prodotto discutibile. Questo è un disco da 1.5 però alla fine gli do 1 più che 2 perchè risentendolo mentre scrivo sto pensando "oh cristo".

Not for me

ruim

I never liked his singles. I gave this album a go and I still don't like his music.

Niet mijn meuk

Bellend.

Commercial radio is chock full of artists like this and that’s why I don’t listen to it. Happily, I haven’t heard of Robbie until now. I’m pleased that despite the global success of this LP, it never charted in Canada or the US.

Who dis?

Could not listen. Not on Spotify, not complete on YouTube.

1997. Key Songs: Angels

Rubbish

awful shite