Come Undone (XXV)

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Come Undone follows Let Me Entertain You on XXV, reimagined by conductor and arranger Jules Buckley. Originally released in 2003 on Escapology, the song remains one of Robbie Williams’s most personal and confessional recordings, now given a sweeping orchestral treatment that emphasises its emotional turbulence.

In this new version, Buckley replaces the electric guitars and programmed beats of the original with a cinematic score, highlighting strings and brass to underline the song’s dramatic arc. The famous line “So f*** you all” lands with even greater theatrical force, surrounded by surging violins rather than distortion. Williams’s vocal, deeper and more controlled than in his early thirties, carries the weight of hindsight, lending the lyric’s introspection a new maturity.

The orchestration’s opening passages bring a tone of calm before the storm, slowly building into the grand finale that mirrors the emotional unravelling at the heart of the song. Though softer in its edges, the reimagined Come Undone retains its core identity, a lament about fame, vulnerability and self-doubt reinterpreted through the perspective of experience.

“Recording these songs again gives them more gravitas, more weight. It’s good to see that I was better before than I thought at the time.”Robbie Williams

Among the most cinematic reinterpretations on XXV, Come Undone trades youthful rage for reflective melancholy. Its orchestral scope reinforces the song’s power, proving that even stripped of its rock grit, it remains one of Williams’s defining statements.