I Tried Love

About

Appearing after several minutes of silence at the very end of Escapology, I Tried Love is a hidden track that captures Robbie Williams at his most mischievous and surreal. Written solely by Williams, it unfolds as a playful stream of consciousness filled with absurd questions and cheeky asides. Beneath the humour, however, the song reflects curiosity, frustration and self-doubt — familiar threads in Williams’ writing, presented here with a wink rather than a tear.

The song opens with whimsical musings — “Did Sooty sleep with Sue?” and “What are the holes in biros for?” — before moving into wilder territory that mixes wordplay, existential musing and schoolboy humour. Each question feels both trivial and philosophical, as though Williams is poking fun at his own need for answers. The tone stays light until the brilliantly sardonic line, “Does God ever get it wrong? Where has Gary Barlow gone?”

I don’t know what it means, really. Just me thinking out loud — or maybe thinking too much. It’s all the random stuff that rattles around my head.Robbie Williams

Musically simple and lyrically chaotic, I Tried Love closes the album with humour after the emotional weight of Nan’s Song. It captures Williams’ unique ability to shift from sincerity to satire within seconds, ending Escapology not with closure, but with curiosity — an artist still searching for meaning, and still laughing along the way.