With the release of this ninth album, Take That’s long journey is evenly split: three as a boy band, three as a reunited man band, and three as the truncated trio of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. That ought to give each era an equal weighting, but their shrunken size as a unit today can’t help but make it feel like greater days are behind them – less the explosive split of their first incarnation, more the slow dissolving of an aspirin.
Other factors also make This Life feel surprisingly understated. Since their last original release, Wonderland, in 2017, there has been a greatest hits collection and a hits-stuffed live album , as well as a jukebox musical in theatres which became a feature film starring Aisling Bea in the summer. They’re also still in vast demand as a live act, with six nights at The O2 next April already sold out. Nostalgia is the theme from outside sources as well, with ex-bandmate Robbie Williams topping the Netflix charts in a new career-spanning documentary. All these things are reminders that the back catalogue is so beloved that it’s increasingly hard to find room for the new material.
