A tribute to Williams's modest talents

Fans will say that Swing When You're Winning, the studio album which follows on from his recent Albert Hall concert, is merely a bit of harmless fun.

And indeed it would take a real killjoy to begrudge a man his chance to play at being Frank Sinatra once in a while - that is what karaoke nights were invented for, after all.

But was it really necessary for Robbie to make quite such a song and dance about the whole thing?

In theory this is a tribute to Frankie, Deano and Sammy, the legends of the Hollywood Rat Pack, yet in reality it is a tribute to the far more modest talents of Mr Robbie Williams.

With its lavish production and big band orchestration, it offers self-indulgence on a grand scale, as Robbie runs up against his own vocal limitations, but does not appear to notice.

Classic songs like Mack The Knife and One For My Baby cry out to be handled with care and sensitivity, yet Robbie simply ends up sounding smug - or horribly out-of-his depth.

The best song is the duet with Nicole Kidman

Then there are the contributions from showbiz friends, turning the whole thing into an upmarket version of Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes, with no sign of Matthew Kelly to end the misery.

There are duets with the extremely famous Nicole Kidman (whose Somethin' Stupid is comfortably the classiest track on the album), the slightly less famous Jane Horrocks and Rupert Everett, and the famous-in-his-own-flat Jonathan Wilkes.

Yet the album reaches its nadir when Robbie duets with the ghostly voice of Sinatra himself on It Was A Very Good Year.

Having been dead for the past three years, the great man clearly had little choice in the matter, yet he gets his own back by successfully undermining everything that follows.

As his rich voice fades away for the last time to be replaced once more by Robbie's nasal tones, listeners everywhere will be wondering why on earth they don't just end this nonsense and play the originals instead.

Robbie can never live up to Frank Sinatra

And it is at this precise moment that the project comes apart at the bespoke-tailored seams.

In the long term it is unlikely that Swing When You're Winning will do Robbie any harm.

His cheeky charm means that he can get away with murder (which is exactly what he does when tackling the Charles Trenet classic Beyond The Sea) and the canny selection of songs could even succeed in winning new converts to a wonderful era of music.

If it does, then the whole thing will have been worthwhile, whatever its shortcomings.

Yet looked at coldly, the album does little more than tell the world what it already knows - that Robbie Williams is a half-decent pop singer and a first-rate showman, but he will never be Frank Sinatra.

Still, if it is any consolation, Ol' Blue Eyes would probably have been a total disaster in Take That.

Swing When You're Winning (Chrysalis) is released on 19 November.