Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Take That - Nobody Else (1995)

Apart from "Back for Good," still the group's biggest hit, probably the best thing about Nobody Else is its cover, featuring posed actions figures of the group. Nobody Else was the end of the Take That, at least for awhile, and unfortunately they went out with a whimper rather than a bang.

The album abandoned the dance pop sound dominant on their first two albums in favor of a fairly even mix of upbeat, urban-leaning pop and MOR slow songs. Sure, these were two of the early '90s dominant pop trends, but by 1995, they sounded a bit played out. So after a pretty good start with both sounds--"Sure" embodying the best of the former and "Back for Good" the best of the latter--the rest of the album is a bit of a snooze. The only other thing that really stands out is "Sunday to Saturday," an upbeat, jazzy number that includes a surprisingly lengthy improvisational horn solo.

As far as I know, this was their only album released in the US, but by then the party was over. By the time "Back for Good" became a major US hit, Robbie had left and the band was just about to break up.

Best: Back for Good, Sure, Sunday to Saturday (3/5)

2 comments:

John said...

tTake That and Party was also released here. I know because I bought it in a cutout bin. I think it was on RCA, while Nobody Else was on Arista. I was not a fan of this album, and it's not a big surprise that only the single did anything.

Cook In / Dine Out said...

So it was their second album. Interesting. I got the US version of Nobody Else years ago (I'm not sure why), but hadn't listened to it until now. I was really surprised it wasn't better, especially since Everything Changes is quite good.