Rudebox is the seventh studio album by the English singer Robbie Williams, released by Chrysalis Records on 23 October 2006 in the United Kingdom. A breakaway from previous releases, Williams worked with a variety of producers, including Mark Ronson, Soul Mekanik, Pet Shop Boys, William Orbit, Joey Negro, and Jerry Meehan. It also features two guest appearances from the Pet Shop Boys. Rudebox is a dance album[1][2] with pop, disco, electronica and rap elements.[3]
Rudebox received mixed reviews, but reached number one in 14 countries, including United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Italy and Finland. It was supported by five singles: "Rudebox", "Kiss Me", "Lovelight", "Bongo Bong and Je ne t'aime plus" and "She's Madonna". "Rudebox" reached number one in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and the top ten in several countries. "Lovelight" was a top ten hit in six countries, including the UK, where it reached number 8.
Background
Work on Rudebox began while Robbie Williams was still promoting and completing his previous album, Intensive Care. In an interview with Music Week in September 2006, Williams described the new writing process as "quite effortless this time around," explaining that he had stopped "trying to please a lot of people" and was now experimenting with "an Apple Mac … me and Jerry Meehan".[4]
Those early sessions with bassist and producer Jerry Meehan became the creative seed of the project. Together they developed several autobiographical spoken-word tracks, including "The 80’s", "The 90’s", and the hidden bonus track "Dickhead". Meehan later recalled that "Dickhead was the first idea that really made us laugh and opened the door to the whole record".[5] According to EMI A&R executive Chris Briggs, Williams actually began writing Rudebox with Meehan before Intensive Care was even completed.[6]
Recording took place between November 2005 and August 2006, marking a decisive break from the pop-rock style of Williams’s earlier work. The singer pursued an eclectic mix of dance, electro-funk, hip-hop, and synth-pop, supported by a diverse production team that included Soul Mekanik (Candy Flip’s Danny Spencer and Kelvin Andrews), William Orbit, Mark Ronson, and Pet Shop Boys with two tracks — "She's Madonna" and "We're the Pet Shop Boys". Lily Allen provides backing vocals on "Bongo Bong and Je ne t'aime plus" and "Keep On".
Together they crafted a sound that combined contemporary club production with the melodic and rhythmic textures of the 1980s. Producer Mark Ronson described his sessions with Williams in New York—particularly on "Lovelight", a cover of Lewis Taylor’s song—as a blend of live instrumentation and analogue synthesizers designed to re-imagine the original as an electronic-soul piece.[7]
The album itself combines original compositions and cover versions, along with "Summertime", a song originally written when Williams left Take That and later used in the credits of the film Mike Bassett: England Manager. Williams covers five songs on the record: "Louise", a 1984 hit for The Human League; "Kiss Me", by Stephen Duffy; "Lovelight", by Lewis Taylor; "We're the Pet Shop Boys", originally by My Robot Friend; and "Bongo Bong and Je ne t’aime plus", by Manu Chao.[8]
Conceptually, Rudebox blends nostalgia and reinvention. The autobiographical songs "The 80’s" and "The 90’s" revisit Williams’s youth and his early years in Take That, while other tracks reinterpret the pop culture of those eras through an electronic lens. In his Track-by-Track Guide, Williams wrote that the album allowed him to revisit his formative influences—from British rap and new wave to acid house—within a freer, more experimental framework. "The 80’s" drew on the conversational style of UK garage and spoken-word poetry, whereas "The 90’s" was initially built around a sample from "Wichita Lineman" before evolving into a reflective monologue.[9][10]
Pet Shop Boys co-wrote and produced "She’s Madonna" after Williams played them Kraftwerk’s "Tour de France" as a sonic reference. The duo later described the collaboration on their official website as "a mixture of Robbie’s humour and our melancholy electronic style".[11]
Upon the album’s release, Williams reflected that Rudebox represented a personal turning point. He described it as the moment he felt creatively liberated, explaining that he could no longer make albums in the same style as before and that this new direction had "opened up a thousand other doors" for him as an artist.[12]
The resulting album stands as one of Williams’s most experimental and polarising works—a mosaic of autobiographical storytelling, homage to pop history, and dance-floor futurism that redefined his creative trajectory.
Controversies
"She's Madonna" was the centre of a tabloid storm after Ashley Hamilton claimed that he came up with part of the song with Williams. Hamilton has claimed he wishes to take the matter to court as he is not credited as a co-writer on the album.[13]
Further controversy arose over the track "The 90's", part of which implies that Williams was ripped off by Take That's manager Nigel Martin-Smith after the band failed to make a profit from a European tour. The song raised the ire of Martin-Smith, who demanded that the song be removed from the album. The omitted lyrics were rapped during the break before the second verse.[14] During a 2019 concert at The Roundhouse in London, Williams stated: "Somebody asked me to do The '90s tonight. But I can't [...] because I'll get sued by Nigel Martin-Smith".[15]
According to review aggregator Metacritic, Rudebox received an average of 53 out of 100 indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on reviews from 12 critics.[26]
Rating the album 8 out of 10, Priya Elan of NME wrote "Luckily, Rudebox is the best thing he's ever put his name to," adding that "there's the double-headed autobiography of 'The 80's' (currently at the centre of a legal dispute) and its follow-up 'The 90's', the clattering 'Vogue' rap in the LA tale 'The Actor' and 'She’s Madonna' – possibly his most bonkers song ever".[27] Julie Broadfoot of BBC Music wrote: "There are a couple of tracks that wash over you but the album's a grower and some of the hooks will follow you around for hours," adding that "Good Doctor," a "tongue-in-cheek take on drugs, has bags of energy and the Stephen Duffy "Kiss Me" is brilliant. "She's Madonna" ("I love you baby, but face it she's Madonna") is a weird but fun tune about Queen Madge."[28]
Michael Hubbard, writing for musicOMH, found that Rudebox "ultimately is, as a whole, several decent records whinnying to escape from development too early, resulting only in an expensive-sounding missed opportunity".[20] Paul Flynn from The Observer wrote that "the hastily conceived Rudebox is bookmarked mostly by a ragbag of weary cover versions that even an advanced pop historian would have trouble connecting."[23] In his review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis noted: "A scant handful of highlights aside, it is packed with half-baked ideas, bad jokes, music that any other star of Williams' stature would be terrified of the general public hearing. Perhaps that's the point. If nothing else, Rudebox is a sharp reminder that Robbie Williams is unique."[17]
Commercial performance
In the United Kingdom, the album sold 54,667[29] copies on the day of its release, reaching number one on the midweek version of the UK Albums Chart. The next day, the album had sold over 75,000 copies.[30] The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart, selling over 147,000 copies in its week of release.[31] Despite reaching number one, sales were far below what was expected by his label EMI and overall sales were overtaken by his former band Take That's Beautiful World. However, the album performed better than Beautiful World outside the UK. The fallout of the album's relative failure led to the firing of two music executives responsible for the album's development.[32] As of December 2013, the album had sold 514,457 copies in the UK.[33] In 2008, NME reported that over one million unsold copies of the album were being sold to a company in China to be recycled and used as a road paving material.[34][35]
The album was released in the Netherlands on 20 October 2006, on the same day the album was certified platinum as a result of pre-order sales of over 70,000 copies.[36] In Belgium, the album sold 50,000 copies and went platinum. It was released on 23 October 2006 in Australia and debuted at number-one, achieving platinum status in its first week.[37] It has since been certified 2× Platinum. 220,000 copies of the album were sold in France on the week of release, as well as 600,000 in Germany. On 8 November 2006, IFPI certified the album 2× Platinum in Europe with sales of over 2million copies, making it the fastest platinum selling album of 2006.[38] On 20 November 2006, the album reached number-one in Mexico, becoming Williams' first number-one album there. The album was certified platinum there, with sales of over 100,000 copies.
Sequel
In December 2020, while promoting "Can't Stop Christmas," the second single from his twelfth studio album The Christmas Present (2019), Williams revealed to the Official Charts Company that he had recorded a dance album during the lockdown period, which includes collaborations with Guy Chambers and a number of dance music artists from Stoke-on-Trent. The untitled album was scheduled to be released in spring 2021, and might have been released with the band name Stoke House Mafia (a name inspired by 2010s chart stars Swedish House Mafia), though the report from the Official Charts Company had not confirmed whether the record was the Rudebox sequel or not.[39][40][41][42][43]
The album he referred to eventually materialised as the debut of his electronic side project Lufthaus, a collaboration between Williams, producers Tim Metcalfe and Flynn Francis. Signed to Armada Music, the group released its debut album Visions Volume 1 in October 2023.[44][45] The project fused Williams’ pop sensibility with the Berlin-inspired sound of melodic and progressive house, showcasing atmospheric synthesizers, club-oriented rhythms and introspective lyrics. Lufthaus released several singles including "Sway", "Soul Seekers" and "To the Light" before issuing their full-length record.[46]
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