Take That: 'Rule The World'

Take That are at a crossroads. Was their impressive comeback - Beautiful World became their biggest-selling LP evah – a mere exercise in hormone-baiting nostalgia, or are the Manchester lads a viable long-term prospect? The relative failure of last single 'I'd Wait For Life', which became their least successful chart-botherer since 'I Found In Heaven' in 1992, suggests the answer isn't as clear-cut as their still-hysterical fans might think.

But 'Rule The World', a new song from the soundtrack to fantasy flick Stardust, crushes any doubts like a nutcracker charged with nuking a weedy little pistachio. A big, proper, important-sounding ballad – the piano chords tremor with passion, the strings sweep impressively and every strum of the guitar seems to quiver with emotion – it offers copious proof that Gary Barlow's flair for melody is still very much intact. But, as the lion's share of Beautiful World attests, the laddish scampery of old is M.I.A. Where the hell is Lulu when you need her, eh?