Robbie Williams has unexpectedly dropped his 13th studio album, Britpop, three weeks ahead of its scheduled February 6 release. The record, inspired by 1990s British music, features collaborations with artists including Chris Martin and Tony Iommi. Williams announced the move via Instagram, expressing his eagerness to share the work now.
Robbie Williams surprised fans on January 16, 2026, by releasing his long-awaited album Britpop through Columbia Records, marking his first studio effort in nearly a decade and his 13th overall. Originally slated for October 10 before being postponed to February 6 to avoid clashing with Taylor Swift's The Life Of A Showgirl, the album arrived early after Williams decided it was time. In an Instagram video, he said: “It’s been long enough. I’ve decided that I wanna go now. It’s been ages. Now, please, deploy, now, let’s go.”
The album draws from the Britpop era, which Williams described as the peak of British music following his 1995 departure from Take That. He explained: “I set out to create the album that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995... I’ve worked with some of my heroes on this album; it’s raw, there are more guitars and it’s an album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual. There’s some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too – I’m immensely proud of this as a body of work and I’m excited for fans to hear this album.” Collaborators include Coldplay's Chris Martin, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi on the single Rocket, Supergrass's Gaz Coombes, Mexican duo Jesse & Joy, and former bandmate Gary Barlow. Other singles are Spies, Human, Pretty Face, and All My Life.
Williams previewed the full album at an intimate October show at London's Dingwalls. He has also voiced ambitions to surpass The Beatles' record of 15 number-one albums, with which he is currently tied; on BBC Radio 2, he told Scott Mills: “Yeah I want that more than anything in my career right now, of course I do.” Facing competition from Sleaford Mods' The Demise of Planet X and Olivia Dean's The Art of Loving, NME awarded Britpop three stars, praising it as bold and true to Williams' style: “That’s what makes him Robbie. For that alone, he’ll live forever.”
To support the release, Williams will launch the Long 90’s Tour in February with shows at Glasgow's Barrowlands Ballroom on the 4th, Liverpool Olympia on the 6th, London's O2 Academy Brixton on the 8th, and Wolverhampton's Civic Hall on the 9th. He recently hinted at a future Take That reunion, saying he is “sure” to perform with the group again.
