ROBBIE WILLIAMS - Britpop

It's a snowy Saturday in January here in Madrid, the year is 1996, and what I'm about to review is the debut album from the most rebellious of the ex-Take That boys, Robbie Williams. It's called “Britpop”. And what else could it possibly be called?

You'd want to thank him just for the feelings that precede listening to this, his thirteenth album, Robbie Williams. Because beyond the actual music, which we'll get to shortly, it's engineered as a time machine of nostalgia — a device capable of conjuring up an alternate reality altogether. It's no secret, after all: this is precisely the album Robbie would have wanted to record right after leaving the famous boy band, had there not been meddling producers in the way.

Setting aside the 2019 Christmas record, a full ten years had passed (since 2016's “The Heavy Entertainment Show”) since we'd last had a Robbie Williams album in our hands. After watching the much-maligned “Better Man” (actually a curious, brave and original biopic), the sense that something was brewing was nonetheless strong.

Let's dispel any doubt straight away. Could this “Britpop” genuinely be a 1996 album? Absolutely. First of all because it really does sound like it was conceived back then — and according to its author, it was. But there's more to it. In truth, the eleven tracks that make up the record were written between 2024 and 2025, but the English popstar pushes his nostalgic game so far that each song feels like the embryo of one of his future hits — future, that is, if we really were back in 1996.

Alongside a hazy “Human” and a “Spies” that echoes the likes of “Feel” and “Come Undone”, the rockier tracks, such as “Rocket” (which can even boast Tony Iommi on guitar!) and “Pretty Face”, wink at Oasis just as they did back when their author was obsessed with Knebworth. The prize for the most Gallagher-esque vocal delivery of the lot, though, goes to “All My Life”; while on “Bite Your Tongue” Robbie recalls the electronic urges of “Rock Dj”. There's also room for a swing/crooner infatuation, with the amusing “It's Ok Until The Drugs Stop Working”.

The most interesting track of all is a kind of synth-pop standard — a fairly unprecedented formula for Williams — titled “Morrissey”. A sprightly, caressing pop gem in which the singer addresses his teenage idol, torn between admiration and friendly compassion.

This writer considers Robbie Williams the last (or one of the last) great British popstars, as well as a formidable songwriter and performer of songs of a kind no one writes anymore. That said, does “Britpop” hold up against its creator's great classics? Definitely not. But who expected it to? No one. Just as it was hard to expect such a nostalgic, enjoyable game as this one in the first place.

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18/01/2026