And so we come to the end of our Take That retrospecticus (although there will be a postscript for it tomorrow!!). But don't cry for me (Argentina) because I have my memory and have clearly rekindled my long love affair with said boys. If their debut album was the sound of the group coming together, and Everything Changes the sound of the group reaching harmony, third and (prior to 2006) final album Nobody Else represented some stunning moments of pop music, yet was the sound of a group coming dangerously close to self indulgence and ego. That's not to say it's not a fine album because it is. It all started off quite poorly however, with the my second least favourite Take That single, Sure. What was meant to be a funky, more modern sounding dance number only ended up illustrating my point above – other members of the band were keen to get in on the writing action and perhaps in the rush to release it, egos were satisfied and the result was an average white bread attempt at new jack swing. And in a stunningly bad marketing move, fans then had to wait a whopping seven months before the next single and the album were released. Luckily, Back For Good was and is a doozy. If Pray is the perfect boy band pop single, then Back For Good sets the bar for perfect boy band pop ballads. Accompanied by their finest video to date, the song is awash with acoustic guitars, lulling piano melodies and the boys finest harmonies to date. Four weeks a top the British chart proved that it went well beyond the boys substantial fan base. The mostly uptempo album Nobody Else was released and a marketing campaign planned for 2-3 further singles. And then it all went wrong. Robbie buggered off to Glastonbury on a bender (sadly not me), dyed his hair blonde, quit and started slagging Gary Barlow off to anyone who would listen. The boys continued as a foursome and put out a new version of Never Forget – with choir boys, pounding drums and an anthemic chorus it proved that, whatever Robbie may say, Gary Barlow knew how to write an amazing pop anthem. With another delay of 6 months (thanks to the Robbie antics and promotion in America) between Back for Good and Never Forget, the fourth and fifth singles from the album were scrapped (the title track and uptempo Every Guy) and a BeeGees cover of How Deep Is Your Love surfaced preceeding the greatest hits and a split. Although I loved their music, I wasn't overly upset at the split as I didn't want the band to descend into self indulgency and clashing egos. Solo careers and the rising star of Robbie Williams kept me going for 10 years until of course that famous documentary last year that relit their fire. Back for good? Time will tell…
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LINK: Buy Take That's Nobody Else expanded edition
LINK: Buy Take That's greatest hits
MP3: Take That – Back For Good
MP3: Take That – Never Forget (single mix)
