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The Official Take That thread
Topic Started: Oct 2 2010, 03:01 AM (6,090 Views)
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4 out of 5 from The Guardian:

Take That's first album as a quintet since 1995 is informed by two things: a genuinely new sound – shaped by electropop producer Stuart Price – and Robbie Williams's seamless reimmersion into life as a band member, which is played out on emotional duets with Gary Barlow and Mark Owen. Progress takes their sound closer to that of the Killers (the blaring arena-rocker Underground Machine), Scissor Sisters (the glam stomp of Happy Now) and even Supermassive Black Hole-era Muse (the alienated electro marching tune Kidz). The real surprise is that this unexpected step from comfy balladry to something more interesting sounds quite natural – the only element that doesn't fit is the free-floatingly doomy lyrics, which foretell unspecified personal and global calamities. Williams, for instance, groans on Underground Machine: "You're in the room with a rock star/ What a beast, what a man," yet you have to admit, the beast-man and his bandmates have produced a noteworthy modern album.
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FuckBuddy
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time to rate this modern age opus, then

The Flood 10/10
SOS 10/10
Wait 9/10
Kidz 7/10
Pretty Things 8/10
Happy Now 8/10
Underground Machine 4/10
What Do You Want From Me? 8/10
Affirmation 9/10
Eight Letters 7/10
Flowerbed 9/10

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Ratings so far from me!

The Flood 10/10
SOS 9/10
Wait 7/10
Kidz 8/10
Pretty Things 8/10
Happy Now 7/10
Underground Machine 6/10
What Do You Want From Me? 6/10
Affirmation 6/10
Eight Letters 7/10
Flowerbed 7/10
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bulgar
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The Flood 10/10
SOS 10/10
Wait 9/10
Kidz 8/10
Pretty Things 8/10
Happy Now 6/10
Underground Machine 5/10
What Do You Want From Me 4/10
Affirmation 4/10
Eight Letters 9/10
Flowerbed 9/10

again, stunning first half, uneventful and less impressive second half. the last 2 song save the album from being a big disappointment.
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bulgar
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can't wait for Pera's review and a HQ leak. :drama: the album is 32 bucks over here (import) so I will definitely NOT be purchasing this until i get back home.
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$32 for a CD??? Screw that!
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The Telegraph review:

Take That: Progress, CD review

Out go the ballads, in come sci-fi Europop techno stomps in Take That's 'Progress'. Rating: * * *

Be careful what you wish for. Take That fans hankering for reconciliation between the revived man band and their prodigal brother Robbie Williams may be taken aback by the musical direction they have taken.

Out go the Coldplay-style ballads. In come sci-fi Europop techno stomps with cut-up lyrics and visions of dystopian social apocalypse. Or something like that.

One and a half million tickets for Take That’s 2011 tour sold out in 24 hours, but I wonder what purchasers will think if the band take to the stage with Kidz. It starts with the crunch of marching jackboots, morphs into polemical, robotic disco and has little Mark Owen making grand pronouncements about monkeys building machines in his nasally northern chirp, before Williams kicks in with a chorus threatening revolution: “There’ll be trouble when the kids come out!” It all ends with massed chanted “La la las” delivered with the gusto of high-kicking Cossacks. It’s a long way from Patience.

From top to bottom, the album is utterly bonkers. Williams has long been a kind of bipolar pop star, somehow blending commercial mass appeal with an instinct for provocation, and he seems to have infused his band mates with his very peculiar sense of fun. Gary, Mark, Jason and Howard have all unleashed their inner Robbie. But, be warned, it is not the Williams of Angels and Let Me Entertain You, it’s the maverick maniac of the derided Rudebox.

Amid cascades of boing-ing, bleeping and banging synths, techno beats, sirens, loops and anything else they and co-producer Stuart Price (Madonna, the Killers) could throw in, Take That genuinely sound like they are having fun. Even the usually restrained Barlow gets in on the nonsense, declaring: “I’m a supersonic specimen/A minor miracle of medicine” on Happy Now, which conjures up the Eighties electro of the Human League, channelled through the stadium rock dynamics of Achtung Baby-era U2.

Yes, it really is that mad. It is the first Take That album I have actually enjoyed listening to, but then I’m not exactly their target audience. They should be applauded for daring to deliver a laugh out loud, big, brash, electro stadium epic, but by the time Owen shouts out: “I just want to have sex with you!” in the excruciatingly frank What Do You Want From Me?, you wonder if they have all been egging each other on just a little too much.

This is either a stroke of pop genius or a musical midlife crisis.
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4 out of 5 from The Independent:

Take That, Progress (Polydor)

By Andy Gill

Those who imagined Take That's reunion album would be a predictable blending of forces will be shocked to hear Progress.

Rather than pop balladry, the album leans heavily on electronic beats and textures, and reflects misgivings about science and humanity. The robotic tint to vocals on tracks such as "Wait", "SOS" and "Kidz" hints at discomfiture with society, while the techno stomper "Under-ground Machine" reveals a dystopian take on boy-meets-girl. It's not all grim portents, though: "Eight Letters" is a gilt-edged Barlow romantic finale, while "Pretty Things", with courtly harpsichord and string tones, offers an engaging take on 60s madrigal-pop.

DOWNLOAD THESE: SOS; Kidz; Pretty Things; Eight Letters; Underground Machine
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Updated ratings! Had a proper listen today while pottering about:

The Flood 10/10
SOS 9/10
Wait 8/10
Kidz 9/10
Pretty Things 8/10
Happy Now 8/10
Underground Machine 8/10
What Do You Want From Me? 7/10
Affirmation 5/10
Eight Letters 8/10
Flowerbed 8/10
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What do you think the singles should be?

"SOS" and "Kidz" for me. They *have* to be released. I have a feeling "Wait" will be released though.
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Yeah, I think those are the two standouts. But that would be two back to back electro spazz outs, so I think they'll split them with Wait.

I really love Wait and Happy Now - they remind me of The Visitors period ABBA.

Their harmonies are always really strong, but they're particularly gorgeous on this album.
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bulgar
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Nov 13 2010, 06:25 PM
What do you think the singles should be?

"SOS" and "Kidz" for me. They *have* to be released.
yeah, those 2 are the standout tracks.
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Did anyone watch the "Look back, don't stare" documentary last night? I enjoyed it, although it was a little drab and grim. Beautifully shot though and the use of instrumentals from the album really made me appreciate the production even more. It really is a gem of an album. Fair play to them for sticking their necks out a bit! :clap:
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Yeah, I didn't appreciate that the songs would be so fully realised before Stuart Price got on board. I was very impressed.

I thought the doco was quite dull, though. I was browsing tinter'web quite a lot whilst it was on.
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Their first performance of The Flood on tonight's X Factor, and their first performance together in 15 years!

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There's a rave, 5-out-of-5 review in today's Sunday Times from Dan Cairns. I've never seen a major pop album get such praise from him before. He ends off the review with "One word: Wow."

:clap:
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FuckBuddy
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the flood was definitely the wisest choice for selling the album up to christmas. sos i think is the most obvious second single. the rest could either be kidz, happy now, wait or even eight letters, it all depends on the direction they choose to follow. if the album sells bucketloads over the festive period, my guess is they're gonna highlight the edgier tracks.
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From today's Metro:

Album Review: Take That’s reunion with Robbie Williams has produced their best album ever in Progress.

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Few bands have lived to tell the pop tale like Take That. The British boy band’s 1996 split traumatised fans enough to inspire TV phone-in helplines; their 21st-century regrouping revived the hysteria, recently melting even more phone lines in the scramble for tour tickets.

Progress follows their comeback LPs Beautiful World (2006) and The Circus (2008) – it’s also their first collective recording since prodigal son Robbie Williams returned to the fold and it’s arguably the best album Take That have ever made.

Williams features extensively throughout the LP, leading the earnest harmony of current single The Flood before hitting showstopper mode.

There’s a generosity of spirit that bolsters Progress; Gary Barlow – always the more gracious one in their much-publicised spat – is happy to generally share vocals and songwriting credits, while savvy producer Stuart Price brings out the best in TT’s pop tunes, with lashings of fruity synths.

The dance energy lacking from their previous two albums has been rebooted here; the structure is also more adventurous, including a classy avant-pop segue from Happy Now to Underground Machine.There are a few fist-chewing moments – Mark Owen’s anguished post-tabloid confessional on What Do You Want From Me? (‘I still wanna have sex with you!’) – but the album’s air of reflection and celebration is convincing. On Progress, this famous five are having the time of their grown-up lives; they also sound, charmingly, like they can’t quite believe it.

****/*****
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Take That: Christmas odds slashed after X Factor

The odds of Take That album Progress being Christmas number one have dropped to 2/5 after their first performance as a five piece in 15 years on X Factor.

Robbie Williams performed with the band for the first time since he left in 1995 as they sang single The Flood from new album Progress, due out on Monday.

The Daily Mail said Williams made "a nervy return" while the Daily Star said Take That "brought the house down".

Progress, meanwhile, has become the biggest pre-order release of the year.

On Monday morning, Ladbrokes made Progress 2/5 favourite for the Christmas number one album while William Hill made it their 4/9 favourite.

According to early estimates, an average audience of 14.5 million viewers watched the X Factor results show, in which contestant Aiden Grimshaw was ejected.

Take That were top of the bill following performances from JLS and Westlife.

The Daily Express said Take That "thrilled the crowd, little more than a year after Robbie made his shaky solo comeback on last year's X ­Factor".

After the performance, Gary Barlow told X Factor host Dermot O'Leary: "The whole day of being in the dressing room has actually been as much fun as being on here - it's been great being back together."

Asked by O'Leary how it felt to be back in the band, Williams replied: "Just still weighing it up. At the moment it feels absolutely magical, fantastic."

Online retailer Amazon said demand for Progress was "higher than anything that either of them have achieved before".

Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, said: "Progress has all the makings of one of the biggest and fastest-selling albums of recent years, and it should comfortably shift well over a million copies in just a few weeks as we approach Christmas."

He said it would "undoubtedly top the festive charts".

Progress, produced by Madonna and Killers collaborator Stuart Price, is Take That's first album as a five-piece since 1995's Nobody Else.

Despite predictions for their album to be a huge success, The Flood was kept off the top of Sunday's singles chart on Sunday by Rihanna who was number one for a second week with Only Girl (In The World).
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"SOS" has to be the next single; great track!

The only song on the album I really don't like is the awful Mark Owen one... everything else is either good or great.
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