Clearly, Robbie Williams has lost his mind. Or at least his desire to be a rock god. And frankly, it's about time.

After repeatedly failing to crack the North American market with wry pop, campy stadium rock and even Rat Pack swing, the 32-year-old has apparently decided enough is enough. So, on his seventh solo set Rudebox, he takes a hard left turn into '80s electro-pop -- a move that seems somewhere between deliberately suicidal and diabolically insolent. Ironically, though, it also takes him on the most adventurous and edgy trip of his career.

Ditching the mile-wide hooks and choruses of old, Robbo teams up with the likes of William Orbit, Lily Allen and Pet Shop Boys on 74 minutes of neo-disco grooves, white-boy rap and electronic bleep-bloopery. The funky title cut is a silly android-funk groove.

Viva Life on Mars is a slice of harmonica hick-hop. Lovelight fires up the disco ball. We're the Pet Shop Boys (co-starring, yes, Pet Shop Boys) is a silly bit of meta-pop. Good Doctor works a funky low-riding groove. The autobiographical cuts The '80s and The '90s track Williams through his boy-band days -- and have reportedly sparked a lawsuit.

The Actor borrows Madonna's name-dropping Vogue rap. And speaking of Madge, the celebrity-shagging fantasy She's Madonna ("No man on earth could say that he don't want her") may be the loopiest song he's ever written.

By the time he starts barking "I've got a bucket of s--t!" on the filthy closing track Dickhead, many of his fans will likely think he's done for.

On the other hand, we have a strange feeling that the real fun might just be getting started.

Track Listing:

1. Rudebox
2. Viva Life On Mars
3. Lovelight
4. King Of The Bongo
5. She's Madonna
6. Keep On
7. Good Doctor
8. The Actor
9. Never Touch That Switch
10. Louise
11. We?re The Pet Shop Boys
12. Burslem Normals
13. Kiss Me
14. The '80s
15. The '90s
16. Summertime
17. Dickhead