Ugly Love

About

Written by Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, Ugly Love was released exclusively on a 2002 European promotional DVD tied to the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox DVD remote control. The disc, titled *Exclusive Xbox DVD*, featured several audio tracks from the Escapology sessions, including this song — a moody, acoustic reflection on toxic relationships and the self-destructive patterns of Williams’ Los Angeles years.

Performed over sparse instrumentation, Ugly Love juxtaposes a sweet, melodic delivery with scathing and often darkly comic lyrics. “You knew I was a pisshead, that’s why I never phoned,” he confesses, before the chorus admits, “We all got high all the time, night after night, line after line.” The track’s conversational tone recalls Williams’ confessional storytelling on songs like Nan’s Song and Talk to Me, yet the humour keeps it from descending into self-pity.

That one reminds me of the people I used to hang around with — the drugs, the madness, the mess. It’s about the uglier side of love when you’re living that way.Robbie Williams

References to “Patrick Cox and Girl Power” and “Vanilla Ice and Take That” place the song firmly in the pop-culture landscape of the late 1990s, while its title captures the contradiction at its heart — affection buried beneath addiction and dysfunction. Never officially released outside that rare DVD, Ugly Love remains a lost gem: a sardonic portrait of excess, regret and the blurred lines between pleasure and pain.