TAKE THAT - Progress

It may have happened to some of us: meeting up again, years later, thanks to a mutual friend, with that middle-school classmate you just couldn't stand (too much of a goody-two-shoes, too beloved by teachers even though they studied less than everyone else, never snubbed by the girls), and finding yourself pleasantly surprised by the conversation.

Well, Take That have been that classmate: adored by teenage girls no matter what they sang or, alas, danced to, and despised by boys as the utmost expression of the crassest pop, even though far worse was playing on the radio and Gary Barlow was never really such a bad songwriter.

The mutual friend here is producer Stuart Price, by now a specialist in revitalising popstars with a blinking expiration date, who for once doesn't just drop his latest client into the 1980s, but also tries to flesh out and electrify that glossy British-soul sound of the early 90s, of which Take That were among the leading names. And Robbie Williams's return to the fold (whose successful solo career had curiously taken a downward turn because of a sound not too dissimilar to the one on display here) was certainly a tempting opportunity to attempt this update.

So here they are, back on the attack with the emphatic "The Flood", which sounds like a more mature, fuller-bodied version of their old "Pray" (and, like that song, proves to be a winning single), serving up one of their classic stylish-aperitif mid-tempos, a sinuous, pulsing "Wait" (probably the best melody in the collection), and allowing themselves a single concession to the Bee Gees dancefloor with "Happy Now".

But the evolution evoked by the title and the cover art is also meant to signal novelty and unpredictable choices: "Underground Machine" and "Kids" are two pounding electro-stomp tracks that wouldn't have been out of place, respectively, on a glammed-up Goldfrapp record or on Pet Shop Boys's "Love Etc.". Echoes of the Killers are clearly audible instead (it's no coincidence that Price is one of Brandon Flowers's favourite producers) on the new single "SOS", unexpectedly upbeat, on "What Do You Want From Me" and on the less successful "Affirmation" (tracks in which Owen and Donald vie with Simon Le Bon for the title of most grating voice in British pop).

So former teenage girls of the '90s hoping for more delicate fare in the vein of "Back For Good" - the track that served as the template for the second, and far more lucrative, phase of their career, built around big ballads and acoustic-leaning adult-oriented pop - are likely to come away disappointed; they'll have to make do with the delightful synth-driven minuet of "Pretty Things", the melancholy and sumptuous "Eight Letters" (which uses a sample of "Vienna" by Ultravox as a coup de théâtre to distract us from the ongoing sugar rush) and a track steeped in reverb and muffled atmospheres (the ghost track "Flowerbed"), which sounds like it was lifted straight from vintage George Michael.

The British press has given this "Progress" an almost triumphant reception; they may be overstating things out of patriotism, but there's no denying it's an album capable of surprising us and casting a different light on the five no-longer-boys: not because of its beauty (it's "only" a pleasant listen) or because it's innovative (it absolutely isn't), but because, looking back at Take That's previous two incarnations, who would ever have expected a record this trendy yet at the same time this mature, and more than respectable for it?

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27/12/2010