33 h. ago Robbie Williams shocks fans as he releases BRITPOP album three weeks early

Robbie Williams has surprised fans by releasing his new LP BRITPOP three weeks earlier than planned, with the unexpected drop coming in the early hours of Friday morning

Events

37 h. ago Robbie Williams releases new album three weeks earlier than expected

New record features collaborations with Gary Barlow, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi

Politics

37 h. ago Robbie Williams surprises fans with early release of new album Britpop

The 51-year-old shocked fans as he took to Instagram to announce he has released his newest record earlier than originally planned.

Politics

46 h. ago BTS named their new album Arirang. What is so striking about their choice?

The title is loaded with meaning for all Koreans, and will give fans globally an insight into the folksong culture that shaped the world’s biggest K-pop groupBTS announced their long-awaited comeback and world tour this week, with their first full-length album in nearly four years set for release on 20 March.On Friday, the K-pop group revealed its title – Arirang – a choice that carries profound emotional weight for Koreans. So what does it mean, what is its significance for the Koreas, and why did BTS choose it? Continue reading...

Events

51 h. ago Robbie Williams: Britpop review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Columbia)Framed as the music Williams wanted to make post-Take That, Britpop surpasses pastiche and swerves unpredictably. Homoerotic paean to Morrissey, anyone?The arrival of Robbie Williams’s 13th album has been a complicated business. It was announced in May 2025 and was supposed to come out in October, when its title would have chimed with the 90s nostalgia sparked by the Oasis reunion. Williams spent the summer engaging in promotion, unveiling fake Britpop-themed blue plaques around London and staging a press conference at the Groucho Club. There was a launch gig at storied Camden venue Dingwalls, at which he performed not just his new album in full, but his 1997 solo debut Life Thru a Lens.It was a bold choice, given that Life Thru a Lens initially threatened to derail his solo career: at the time, the now nakedly obvious supernova hits Angels and Let Me Entertain You were overlooked while people criticised Williams’s muddled attempts to fit in with, well, Britpop. On stage a...

Politics

58 h. ago Harry Styles finally announces new album and it's out very soon

Harry Styles has finally confirmed his long-awaited fourth studio album, which is due for release in just a matter of weeks

Politics

9 d. ago The Cribs: Selling a Vibe review | Alexis Petridis’s album of the week

(PIAS)The Jarman brothers’ ninth album adds a little 80s pop sheen to their distorted guitars and confident songwriting, while always sounding exactly like the indie stalwartsLast summer, the BBC broadcast an eight-part podcast called The Rise and Fall of Indie Sleaze. Its third episode heavily featured the Cribs’ bassist and vocalist Gary Jarman talking about his band’s first flush of mid-00s fame. It centred on their 2005 single Hey Scenesters!, from which the episode also took its name. It was a curious choice: on close examination, Hey Scenesters! wasn’t a celebration of what some people unfortunately dubbed the New Rock Revolution so much as the sound of Jarman and his bandmate brothers poking fun at it.There was the peculiar dichotomy of the Cribs in a nutshell. They were a band so of the mid-00s moment that they were nearly signed to a record label founded by Myspace. But they always seemed slightly apart from the scene. They were certainly less voracious in the pursuit of ma...

Politics

1 week ago Liam Gallagher heading back to studio with legendary guitar star for new album just weeks after end of Oasis reunion

LIAM GALLAGHER isn’t planning on putting his feet up for long after the biblical success of Oasis’s reunion tour. I’m told that the motor-mouthed rocker has been offered the chance to make a second record with Stone Roses guitarist John Squire. The Manchester greats, who were at the funeral of Stone Roses bass player Mani...

Politics

2 w. ago Dry Cleaning: Secret Love review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(4AD)The standout act in the sprechgesang wave, the four-piece’s newly expansive sound carries singer Florence Shaw’s distinctive tales of mundane lives spiralling out of controlDry Cleaning’s third album features a lot of strikingly odd lyrics. Take your pick from “alien offshoot mushroom, going the gym to get slim”; “my dream house is a negative space of rock”; or, indeed, “when I was a child I wanted to be a horse, eating onions, carrots, celery”. But it’s an ostensibly more straightforward line, from Cruise Ship Designer, that seems destined to attract the most attention. “I make sure there are hidden messages in my work,” says vocalist Florence Shaw as the track draws to a conclusion, the muscular guitar riff that’s driven it along devolving into a janky, trebly scrabble.Initially, the lyric appears to characterise what Dry Cleaning do, and Shaw in particular. From the moment they first appeared with the 2018 EP Sweet Princess, the south London quartet have attracted adjectives...

Politics