How Peculiar

About

Written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, How Peculiar opens Escapology with a burst of swagger and eccentricity. Recorded at Los Angeles’ Ocean Way Studios, it set the tone for an album that balanced humour, confession and defiance. The song began as an improvised vocal take over a backing track, with Williams later admitting that most of the final lyric came from that spontaneous first performance.

Built around a stomping beat, distorted guitars and looped vocal effects, the song fuses glam-rock and funk influences. Its surreal imagery and sexual innuendo — “Just get the old fella and whack it up against her tush” — underline Williams’ fascination with self-parody and provocation. Beneath the bravado, the chorus reveals a flash of vulnerability: “Jesus, what am I to do, man? I am a depressed man.”

It was the first take. No lyrics written down, just a train of thought. I’d got a massive crush on someone and this was me trying to talk myself into being confident.Robbie Williams

When introducing the song on The Robbie Williams Show in 2002, he described it as inspired by a brief infatuation that left him “feeling like a seven-year-old.” The track’s combination of playful rhythm and anxious introspection reflected the split personality at the heart of Escapology — a performer who could mock his own excess while still searching for connection. How Peculiar remains one of the album’s boldest statements, equal parts comedy, chaos and confession.