Robbie Williams to release new album Heavy Entertainment Show ft Ed Sheeran and Brandon Flowers

The follow-up to 2013's Swings Both Ways will drop on 4 November

Robbie Williams has announced the upcoming release of his first new album since 2013.

The intriguingly-titled Heavy Entertainment Show is scheduled to drop on 4 November, featuring songs co-written by the big-hitting likes of Ed Sheeran, Brandon Flowers, John Grant and of course, his long-term collaborator Guy Chambers.

News of the record first broke during The X Factor ad break on Saturday night, when a 40-second clip soundtracked by the title track saw Williams dressed as a boxer in the ring, fighting as both opponents.

Heavy Entertainment Show will be the 42-year-old’s follow-up to Swings Both Ways and is the result of three years of songwriting. “I’ve been working on this album like I work on all the other albums,” Williams told Julie Adenuga in a special interview to be aired on her Beats 1 radio show.

“It’s been a process of three years, some of these songs that have been on the album I’ve had three years ago, and I’ve had on my computer and I’ve been very excited about them and the new ones have taken their place and then the old ones have gone, and then the old ones come back up, the new ones…it’s just a process that’s been years in the making.”

Williams, who played London’s Roundhouse on Sunday night as part of the Apple Music Festival, also explained the thinking behind the album’s title. “I was musing over the phrase ‘light entertainment’ - all the huge TV shows from when I was a kid, 30 million people watching them, this huge shared experience of these moments called light entertainment,” he said.

“Sometimes it can be levelled at people in a bad way, but for me that’s heavy entertainment. That’s what I’m hoping to do with this album - to have a shared experience with millions of people through the medium of light entertainment…but on steroids.”

The singer, who has two children with wife Ayda Field, is thrilled to be back “recreating some magic” with Chambers. “We’re back in each others’ lives and I love him, he’s my musical brother, and you know, he’s my spiritual brother,” he said. “We just try to get back into the studio and recreate some magic, and hopefully reconnect with what made it and us successful in the first place.”

Williams has 11 chart-topping albums under his belt, a tally matched only by Elvis Presley, while Swings Both Ways was the 1000th album to reach UK number one.

Check out the tracklist for Heavy Entertainment Show here:

“Heavy Entertainment Show”

“Party Like a Russian”

“Mixed Signals”

“Love My Life”

“Motherf**ker”

“Bruce Lee”

“Sensitive”

“David’s Song”

“Pretty Woman”

“Hotel Crazy” ft Rufus Wainwright

“Sensational”

Five extra songs will feature on a 16-track deluxe version of the album, along with a DVD of exclusive behind-the-scenes content.