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Robbie Williams – "Britpop": Breaking news! When the world was still in order!Status:01/19/2026, 03:46 PM By: Max Dax Robbie Williams. © Jason Hetherington The new album "Britpop" by Robbie Williams seems like a journey through time. What do Robbie allow? Announced in advance for months, postponed several times, most recently to February, finally released last Friday without further comments: The new, the darn 13th album, the not really necessary new, not really eagerly awaited new album by Robbie Williams, which seems unnecessarily dated due to the fact that the title, "Britpop", and the cover as well as some tracks had already been known for months. Cover of the new album by Brian Williams. © Sony Music A word about cover and title: These are the names and looks like records that some design offices design in such a way that they (hopefully) cut edge surf the zeitgeist. In the cinema, one would speak of blockbuster posters, which is a learned sign language under which it does not work. Robbie Williams then comes up with a motif that shows two "Just Stop Pop!" activists smearing a portrait of Robbie (with a gap in his teeth) in a tracksuit, which hangs next to old hams in a dignified, public picture gallery, with pink paint (and documenting this process in portrait format for TikTok with their smartphones). When Robbie Williams released his first solo album "Life Through a Lens" in 1997, almost 30 years ago, this decision manifested the break with the boy band Take That, with which he had become famous. It was an attempt to free oneself from a golden cage and to emancipate oneself from an expectation that had already inscribed its expiration date. He went all-in, cut the ties to the cow, which could have been milked for years to come, and hoped for an equally golden future. It could also have gone wrong. But the calculation worked. Today, his hits, especially "Angels", are played before, between and after finals at the World Cup and the Champions League. In mainstream pop, this is the greatest accolade an entertainer can earn, the end of the ladder, the place where the air gets thin. Correcting the pastAfter the initial success, Robbie Williams lurched for three decades. Although his commercial success remained largely true to him, many of his albums released since then have seemed like second or third infusions of his first smash hits. Swing albums with a big band, Christmas albums and the obligatory recordings with symphony orchestra didn't make it any better – his career began to resemble that of Eros Ramazzotti, who has been chasing his own successes for decades. So now "Britpop" or the attempt to remind us in the wake of the beer- and nostalgia-filled Oasis reunion that there was once an unsympathetic, yet extremely successful pop trend in the 1990s, which even when it was new at the time, seemed unpleasantly nationalistic, backward-looking and conformist. In fact, Williams' debut at the time was an extremely successful attempt to establish himself as a solo artist in the wake of this wave. "Britpop" consists of eleven songs and has a running time of 38 minutes. This is the classic length of a vinyl album, when vinyl albums were still the measure of all things, and hints at what Robbie Williams may have been up to here: With between 75 and 100 million records sold behind him, without time pressure and without a real agenda, to briefly correct the past. So this includes, in a way in a journey through time, to return to the sound of that time and compose a series of songs that could also come from the carefree, hedonistic 1990s in terms of arrangement. The sensation of hearing "Britpop" can be compared to the experience of taking the dusty CD version of a Britpop album from the 1990s out of a moving box, stripping off the dust and playing the record loudly – just like back when the world was still in order. In fact, Robbie Williams collects more good songs on "Britpop" than on the last dozen albums before, even if it doesn't contain any uber-hits like "Angels" or "Let Me Entertain You". So he shows what he can do, but he also shows (involuntarily?) what he may no longer be able to retrieve – like a former world footballer who can then perform all the tricks and step-overs again in Canada or Saudi Arabia in the autumn of his career because he is no longer really attacked. Consequently, the whole undertaking has a bizarre, sometimes out-of-the-box lightness, which brings many convincing and quite surprising songs with it due to the quality of the songwriting and production. One example is the wall of sound of the opening song "Rocket", which Williams wrote together with Tony Iommi, the former Black Sabbath guitarist. The power ballad "All My Life" sounds like Oasis with Robbie Williams as singer, but with self-deprecating lyrics that are rather missing from Oasis: "My life is based on a true story, one of love, chaos and audacity". Finally, for the sake of all good things, just three songs as an example, "Morrissey", a synthipop ballad about Morrissey, the forerunner of Britpop when Britpop was still called The Smiths, and whose career recently imploded into controversy, mainstream and nationalism. Robbie Williams actually wrote this song together with Gary Barlow, his comrade-in-arms from the time of Take That, and goes down like butter. When listening to "Britpop" repeatedly, however, the suspicion increasingly arises that chance after chance to write real pop songs for eternity has been missed. This feeling that makes music "as if" here, with the handbrake slightly on, which sometimes gets in the way of one's own cleverness (or that of his spin doctors), and which is nevertheless one of the best things he has ever achieved – this is the culmination of a feeling that one seems to have always had with Robbie Williams: This darned, this great art, which seems to be within reach right behind the mainstream, simply can't get a grasp. Robbie Williams surfs the Oasis nostalgia wave with "Britpop"

Robbie Williams - BRITPOP germanfailer 20h ago 86 I am a Robbie Williams fan and therefore I might be a bit biased, BUT I am very surprised by how good this album is. I like his last "proper" record The Heavy Entertainment Show from 2016 but I thought it got quite boring in a short time. I think the idea to write an album he would have wanted to write in the 90s when he left Take That, is very cool. But I was a bit concerned because it is not always the best idea to relive the past and try to do something that has been done before quite a few times. In this case, I think the idea works and he created some of his best songs in a very long time. For me personally "Pretty Face" is a highlight. It is a pretty predictable Pop/Rock/Britpop - Song, but that doesnt take away from the fact, that it is still a good song. I don´t get the hate for "Morissey". It is obviously a sarcastic track, written from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Musically it is very cool, it sounds a bit Pet Shop Boys - ish and reminds me a lot of "She´s Madonna" from 2006. Which I like a lot. "It´s ok until the drugs stop working" is also very cool. But I have to say I like most of the songs. There are only 1 or 2 songs which i skip from time to time. The one being "Human" which doesnt really fit in this whole concept in my opinion. And it sounds a bit cheap. "Rocket" is another track I skip sometimes. I have been listening to it a lot when it came out, but it doesnt really do it for me anymore. Especially in the context of the album, I dont think that it fits very well. Still, this album will be one of the better ones in 2026, I´m very sure. I know that there will be people who don´t like it and thats fine. For me its great and I´m having a lot of fun with it. 86/100 Source Robbie Williams - BRITPOP review by germanfailer - Album of The Year

SELFISH DISCO Lyrics ( Credit to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Nho5FPo__hIFbg_UlaCgA ) SELFISH DISCO Wind your body to the bass line Forget about your waistline You can make time to take time Like cigarettes after sex, it’s self-respect You’ve been bullied by the cool kids They won’t get what this is Such pretentious bitches Another brick in the wall, a wonder wall If you don’t dance hold me like I do Cos I just wanna look at you A bit of S Club and a bit of Blue 90’s Pop looks good on you, It’s what we do I Know What I Want When Everyone is gone I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Drop On in a One Keep on Stepping On I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Disco I’m Pulling an All -Nighter Hold Up My Zippo Lighter Strutting Like A Fighter Whoa Coo Ca Choo If you don’t dance hold me while I do Cos I just wanna look at you Some Buzzcocks and Siouxsie Soux A Little bit of punk looks good on you, don’t’ tell her what to do I Know What I Want When Everyone is gone I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Drop On in a One Keep on Stepping On I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Disco And I’m Flippin Like I’m Trippin and I’m Living it up And I’m Flexing in the kitchen, I’m just making it up And my neighbours keep on knocking but I’m deep in the cut And I’m Turning it up I’m not turning it off And I’m Flippin Like I’m Trippin and I’m Living it up And I’m Flexing in the kitchen, I’m just making it up And my neighbours keep on knocking but I’m deep in the cut And I’m Turning it up I’m not turning it off I Know What I Want When Everyone is gone I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Drop On in a One Keep on Stepping On I have myself a selfish Disco Selfish Disco Wind your body to the bass line Forget about your waistline You can make time to take time too Like cigarettes after sex, have some self-respect ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Absolutely loving these bonus tracks

The De-Luxe edition has landed Available on all streaming platforms .

Hüseyin Turan¹⁹⁰⁵ 🇹🇷💛❤️ on X: "İnternational stars as Millie Bobby Brown, Katy Perry, Robbie Williams, Lee Jung Jae, Lee Byung Hun, Travis Fimmel, Forest Whitaker, Shah Rukh Khan and Turkish stars Hande Erçel, Tuba Büyüküstün and Halit Ergenç captured by the famous photographer David LaChapelle #JoyAwards https://t.co/pqPVCxT5fg" / X

Either way I think he is a very happy man at the moment ..

There are so many. I am going to go back & read them all next week. 😊

Maybe he will announce some more dates soon

We live in hope ☺️

I think so Laura , he was one of the guest performers. Opened the show I think. Joy Awards 2026 brings A-listers to Riyadh, honors regional and global talent

Nice review 👍. I like the fact the record is only 38 minutes long, you are kinda left wanting more which is a good thing in my opinion & hopefully we will get more of same at a future date. I would like to have seen Morrissey released as a single. it's a banger of a tune with great lyrics. I love the track YOU & would love to hear it live at one of his gigs . It's an amazing song. I love it & one of my favourites on the album.

I thought that was odd as well. I am not 100% Aux-fait as to how the charts work anyway so I guess I wait & see.