Stoke's favourite son's sixth studio album marks a new stage in the career of Mr Robert Peter Williams, Britain's favourite popular entertainer. Severed from his former right hand man, songwriter Guy Chambers, Intensive Care sees him forging a new partnership with former Lilac Time stalwart Stephen Duffy. The result is his most complete album to date, free from the gimmicky fillers-like "Me and My Monkey" and "Jesus In A Camper Van"-that tended to drag previous efforts down. Never short of cocksure bravado, Robbie starts proceedings off with a modest declaration—"Here I stand victorious, the only man who made you come", but for once he's got the tunes to back up the posturing. There're plenty of classic Robbie tracks, from the ballad-tastic "Advertising Space"-which should see "Angels" relegated to the backbenches-to the public confessional of "The Trouble With Me"; plus some daring departures in between, from the '80s pop fun of "Sin Sin Sin" to the Rolling Stones-a-like "A Place To Crash", via the Oasis-lite of "Make Me Pure" and the Smiths-esque guitars on "Your Gay Friend". You can't help but feel that Mr Williams has a point to make with this album, to all the people who said he'd be nothing without Guy Chambers; if that is the case, he couldn't have gone about it a better way than by serving up the best album of his career to date. -Melanie Wilkin More to Explore Greatest Hits (CD) Live at Knebworth (CD) Official 2006 Calendar Live 8 (DVD) Find more Robbie.

Good on Elvis for risking the ridicule of a blinkered pop world with this unprecedented (for him, certainly, and most anyone short of Kurt Weill) and quite lovely album of bitchy, wise, and funny art songs accompanied by strings. His freshest, most evolved work in years. -Jeff Bateman.

Phil Collins is regularly thrashed in the press for playing it safe and churning out predictable dependable music for yuppies. He was once accused of being "a rich superstar whose music only sounded good in a BMW. " On A Hot Night in Paris, Collins again jumps into the shallow end of the pool and comes up playing Le Jazz Hot, with a 20-member band including a Count Basie arranger and some old-timers he borrowed from Buddy Rich's band to augment his regular players. To his credit, Collins worked out to a video designed for jazz drummers to get in shape for the project, but his muscular timekeeping lacks the color and subtleties of players born to the art form. Also, there is very little of what he does best: singing. The only vocals on this album are a few grunts and moans during an almost-note-perfect rendering of the Average White Band's funk classic, "Pick up the Pieces," which almost rescues the album from banality. Thrown in for recognition value are instrumental renditions of some of his better known solo chart-toppers, such as "Sussudio," "I Don't Care Anymore," and "Against All Odds. " But more surprising, the former Genesis skinbeater threw in four numbers from the rock band's extensive songbook, including a swing version of the eccentric "Los Endos Suite. " The only thing missing from this CD, recorded live in Paris and Montreux, is the clinking of cocktail glasses. -Jaan Uhelszki.

Don't look for "Kentucky Woman"- or "America"-level energy in As Time Goes By, Neil Diamond's double-disc collection of movie themes. These tracks are much more orchestrated (conducted by soundtrack legend Elmer Bernstein, even), and although they're just as emotive, they're ultimately too smooth for most of us. It's an interesting mix of old and new-songs range from "Moon River" to a surprisingly effective "My Heart Will Go On"; there's even a Sinatra medley. Diamond is certainly in top form (just not the form some of us wish he was still in), and Bernstein's music is effective. The real flaw is the pacing-seemingly upbeat numbers just never seem to take off. "And I Love Her," "Puttin' On the Ritz," and "True Love" beg for the jazz singer we once knew. Does every diamond in the rough eventually get polished? Suppose so. -Jason Verlinde.