1995 Take That: Back For Good

Sixth number one from Take That and one that's come to be regarded as their 'Stairway To Heaven', their 'Smoke On The Water', their 'Dark Side Of The Moon', 'Citizen Kane', ‘Gettysburg Address’ and 'À la recherche du temps perdu' all rolled into one. It's the one song that will be writ large in Gary Barlow's obituary and 'GARY BARLOW – NOT GONE FOR GOOD, JUST SLEEPING' will no doubt be chiselled onto his gravestone.

And is it all that? Well there's no doubt that 'Back For Good' has a nagging chorus of soulful endearment with an immediate appeal that’s hard to ignore. At first anyway. But its welcome turns into an annoying persistence that gets flogged hard and long until it becomes its be all and end all and the message becomes meaningless in much the same way as, for example The Osmonds' 'Love Me For A Reason' becomes a pile driving slogan of repetition rather than a fully formed song (come on - do you know how any of the verses go?)

And regarding the song beneath, 'Back For Good' has a smooth yet sterile soul swing that approximates an idealised take on late night Motown but a take that’s one step removed from the source; it’s indicative of Barlow having read about acts like The Temptations and then trying to recreate it without ever actually going to the trouble of listening to the records. I don’t mean that as a particularly harsh criticism – after all, it's the nature of the beast and I’ve overlooked (and enjoyed) worse examples of filtered style than this. But to my mind that’s not where the problems end and 'Back For Good's shiny wrapper only serves as dressing to distract attention from the rotten egg beneath.

I wrote previously how 'Back For Good' slots in nicely to close the trilogy started by 'Everything Changes' and 'Babe' (which they inconveniently released out of sequence) with the narrator, now face to face with his stray babe on her doorstep, makes a last ditch pitch to patch things up. "Whatever I said, whatever I did I didn't mean it. I just want you back for good". Excuse me? You have no idea what caused the upset but it doesn't matter because you didn't mean it? That's hardly a deal clincher of an understanding apology is it? And if you're in that much ignorance over what caused the rift, then how do you know it won't happen again eh?

Not that Barlow cares; “Whenever I'm wrong just tell me the song and I'll sing it, you'll be right and understood” - again, it’s the hammering of the "I want'" male angle with no recognition of the two way process a relationship entails that irritates in its blissful oblivion to any suggestion that the 'problem' here might just be that she's sick of the sight of his face and his domineering chauvinism. As egotistic as you like, the decision to rekindle this old flame is unilateral ("I guess now it's time for me to give up. I feel it's time") and it ends with a demand to satisfy a personal need that carries with it a faint hint of menace: "I think it's time you came back for good" - or what Gary? Are you going to give her a pot in the gob? That would explain the "fist of pure emotion" he's got anyway.

I daresay neither Gary Barlow nor the band consciously mean harm by any of this and that my constant witch hunts are a cheap form of bloodsport to stoke the fires of my own feelings of superiority over the folks who enjoy music of this nature. But then it's precisely because of the hamfistedness of his lyrics, their inherent gobbledegook whenever their not delivering a generic moon in June chorus ("Unaware but underlined I figured out the story. It wasn't good. But in the corner of my mind I celebrated glory. But that was not to be") and the general derivativeness of any of the music they get hitched to that I can't take 'Back For Good' (or Gary Barlow as a songwriter per se) seriously.

Not as seriously as others seem to do anyway. As far as teen/pop idol/heartthrobs etc go, Take That seemed to exist solely to churn out a steady diet of songs for female doormats happy to be seduced into acquiescence by a cheeky smile of manipulation, a promise of forever that will doubtless be broken and a self centred alpha male attitude that reduces them to chattels who should fall in line with whatever the boys want. You never got that from The Osmonds did you eh?