Escapology (album)

Escapology is the fifth studio album recorded by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. It was released on 18 November 2002 through EMI Records.

Escapology
Studio album by Robbie Williams
Released	18 November 2002
Recorded	2001–2002
Studio	Capitol Studios, Los Angeles; AIR Studios, London; Mayfair Studios, London; Conway Studios, Los Angeles; O'Henry Sound Studios, Burbank and Angel Recording Studios, London[1]
Genre	Pop rock[2]
Length	73:55
Label	EMI
Producer	Guy Chambers Steve Power
Robbie Williams chronology
Swing When You're Winning (2001) Escapology (2002) Live at Knebworth (2003)
Singles from Escapology
"Feel" Released: 10 October 2002 "Come Undone" Released: 31 March 2003 "Something Beautiful" Released: 28 July 2003 "Sexed Up" Released: 3 November 2003

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Blender	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[5]
The Guardian	[6]
NME	4/10[7]
PopMatters	(negative)[8]
Rolling Stone	[2]
Stylus	C+[9]
Slant Magazine	[10]
Yahoo! Music UK	[11]

The album debuted at number one in the United Kingdom with first-week sales of over 264,000, becoming Williams' fifth consecutive number one.

Background

In 2002, Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract with EMI.[12] The contract included a number of provisos, including the label ceding greater creative control to the artist and a commitment to breaking Williams in the American market. In return, EMI affirmed they would benefit from a cut of Williams' non-recording activities, including touring, publishing, and merchandising, thus protecting the company from any commercial downturn in the singer's album sales.[13] So far it has become the biggest music deal in British history.[14]

After a year out from recording, Williams began working on what would be his fifth studio album. The album heralded a new era for Williams, as he had taken a more active role in the making of the album, giving an indication of his growing confidence in the studio. "One Fine Day", "Nan's Song" and "Come Undone" were the first three songs that Robbie wrote without Guy Chambers' input. The majority of the album was recorded in Los Angeles. Escapology was arguably conceived as a concept album, due to its lyrical content being totally reflective of Williams' life as a popstar. The album focuses on his hopes, fears and depression over the search of love.

As the contract stated, EMI attempted to break Williams in the American market; to this end the label asked him to tweak Escapology to suit the market. The American release shuffled the song order, removed "Song 3", "Hot Fudge", "Cursed" and one hidden track, added "Get a Little High" and "One Fine Day", and made "How Peculiar (Reprise)" a main album track instead of a hidden track. Williams promoted the album on shows such as Good Morning America, Last Call with Carson Daly and The Tonight Show. This version of the album won the award for Best Album by a Solo Male in the International Category at the Premios Oye! in Mexico.[15]

Reception

Initial critical response to Escapology was generally mixed. Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 53, based on 11 reviews.[16]

Chart performance

Escapology debuted at number one in the United Kingdom on sales of 264,104, becoming Williams' fifth consecutive number-one album.[17] It also reached number one in Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria. It also reached the top ten in other European countries. However, it failed to make an impact in the United States, only reaching number forty-three on the Billboard albums chart. Escapology became the best selling album of 2002 in the United Kingdom, selling 1.2 million copies,[14] and being certified 6× Platinum by the BPI in December 2003,[18] becoming the sixtieth best selling album of all time in the UK. The album sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide, and over 2 million copies in the UK alone.[19]

Singles

• "Feel", a track written by Williams and Chambers, was released as the album's first single. Originally only recorded as a demo in 1999, Williams attempted to re-record the vocals in 2002, however, felt unsatisfied with the result, and thus decided to issue the original demo version instead.[20] When the single was released in late 2002, it became a massive worldwide hit for Williams and reached top ten in most of the European countries. It also topped the charts in Argentina, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Mexico, and the Netherlands. The success of the song was so massive that it spent 54 weeks inside the Canadian charts. The video for the song received attention in the United States, due to Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah appearing as his love interest, leading radio stations to play the track.
• "Come Undone", the album's second single, became a top ten hit around the world. However, the video for the song was heavily censored by MTV Networks for depicting Williams having three-way sex with two women.[21] The video also highlighted graphic images of people vomiting and fist fighting, a cockroach crawling out of a person's mouth, and close-up shots of maggots, snakes and insects in close contact with the party goers in the video.[22] The uncensored version of the video was released via a DVD single in Europe, and was also included on the Enhanced CD single.[23] BBC Radio 2 also banned the song for its explicit content.[24] During such furors, it was confirmed that Williams and Guy Chambers were to officially part ways.[23]
• "Something Beautiful", a song which was first offered to Tom Jones, was released as the album's third single. After given to Williams, it was reworked and heavily remixed.[25] The single was released in the summer of 2003, and while it hit the top ten in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark, it failed to make an impact in the world charts. The video included a casting in which people from all over Europe contested to win the chance to perform as Robbie Williams at the end of the video. The three winners had the chance to meet Robbie, and three different versions of the video were released to different parts of the world including the different winners.
• "Sexed Up" was released as the album's fourth and final single, becoming another top ten single for Williams in the United Kingdom. However, it failed to make an impact in the charts elsewhere, the exception being Brazil where it became very popular and gained massive radio airplay for being part of a soap opera soundtrack.

Track listing

• All the songs produced by Guy Chambers and Steve Power.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"How Peculiar"	Robbie Williams Guy Chambers	3:13
2.	"Feel"	Williams Chambers	4:23
3.	"Something Beautiful"	Williams Chambers	4:48
4.	"Monsoon"	Williams Chambers	3:46
5.	"Sexed Up"	Williams Chambers	4:21
6.	"Love Somebody"	Williams Chambers	4:10
7.	"Revolution" (with Rose Stone)	Williams Chambers	5:44
8.	"Handsome Man"	Williams Chambers Adrian Deevoy	3:56
9.	"Come Undone"	Williams Boots Ottestad Ashley Hamilton Daniel Pierre	4:38
10.	"Me and My Monkey"	Williams Chambers	7:12
11.	"Song 3"	Williams Chambers	3:50
12.	"Hot Fudge"	Williams Chambers	4:08
13.	"Cursed"	Williams Chambers Deevoy	4:01
14.	"Nan's Song"	Williams	3:52
15.	"How Peculiar (Reprise)" (hidden track)	Williams Chambers	2:14
16.	"I Tried Love" (hidden track)	Williams Chambers	3:31

American edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Feel"	Williams Chambers	4:23
2.	"Monsoon"	Williams Chambers	3:46
3.	"Sexed Up"	Williams Chambers	4:21
4.	"Get a Little High"	Williams Ottestad	3:56
5.	"Come Undone"	Williams Ottestad Hamilton Pierre	4:38
6.	"Something Beautiful"	Williams Chambers	4:48
7.	"Love Somebody"	Williams Chambers	4:10
8.	"Revolution" (with Rose Stone)	Williams Chambers	5:44
9.	"How Peculiar"	Williams Chambers	3:13
10.	"One Fine Day"	Williams	3:35
11.	"Me and My Monkey"	Williams Chambers	7:12
12.	"Handsome Man"	Williams Chambers Deevoy	3:56
13.	"Nan's Song"	Williams	3:52
14.	"How Peculiar (Reprise)"	Williams Chambers	2:14

Special edition bonus DVD

No.	Title	Length
1.	"My Culture" (Live on Later... with Jools Holland)
2.	"Feel" (Live in Germany)
3.	"Feel" (Live on TOTP)
4.	"Sexed Up" (Live on TOTP)
5.	"Come Undone" (Live on the National Lottery)
6.	"One Fine Day" (Live on the National Lottery)
7.	"Something Beautiful" (Live on CD:UK)
8.	"Come Undone" (Live on TV4, Sweden)

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2002–03) Peak position Argentine Albums (CAPIF) 2 Australian Albums (ARIA)[26] 3 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[27] 1 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[28] 1 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[29] 3 Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan) 39 Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[30] 1 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[31] 1 Europe (European Hot 100) 1 Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[32] 1 French Albums (SNEP)[33] 3 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[34] 1 Greek Albums (IFPI)[35] 1 Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[36] 9 Irish Albums (IRMA)[37] 1 Italian Albums (FIMI)[38] 2 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[39] 40 Mexican Albums (Top 100 Mexico)[40] 3 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[41] 3 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[42] 1 Polish Albums (ZPAV)[43] 3 Portuguese Albums (AFP)[44] 1 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[45] 11 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[46] 1 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[47] 1 UK Albums (OCC)[48] 1 US Billboard 200[49] 43

Year-end charts Chart (2002) Peak position German Albums Chart[50] 26 UK Albums Chart (OCC)[51] 1 Chart (2003) Position German Albums Chart[52] 4 Decade-end charts Chart (2000–2009) Peak position Australia Album (ARIA) [53] 45 German Albums (Media Control Charts) 5 UK Albums Chart (OCC) 23

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Argentina (CAPIF)[54]	Platinum	40,000^^
Australia (ARIA)[55]	5× Platinum	350,000^^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[56]	4× Platinum	120,000^*
Belgium (BEA)[57]	Platinum	50,000^*
Canada (Music Canada)[58]	Gold	50,000^^
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[59]	4× Platinum	200,000^^
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[60]	Platinum	46,225[60]
France (SNEP)[61]	Platinum	300,000^*
Germany (BVMI)[62]	4× Platinum	1,200,000^^
Greece (IFPI Greece)[63]	Gold	15,000^^
Hungary (MAHASZ)[64]	Gold	10,000^^
Netherlands (NVPI)[65]	2× Platinum	160,000^^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[66]	2× Platinum	30,000^^
Poland (ZPAV)[67]	Platinum	70,000^*
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[68]	Gold	50,000^^
Sweden (GLF)[69]	Platinum	60,000^^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[70]	5× Platinum	200,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[18]	7× Platinum	2,075,441[71]
Summaries
Europe (IFPI)[72]	5× Platinum	5,000,000^*
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

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