''The Christmas Present'' is the 12th studio album by British singer-songwriter

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

, and his first studio album since 2016's ''

The Heavy Entertainment Show ''The Heavy Entertainment Show'' is the eleventh studio album by English recording artist Robbie Williams. It was released on 4 November 2016 through Columbia Records. It features guest appearances from Rufus Wainwright and John Grant. The al ...

''. It was released on 22 November 2019, and features guest appearances from

Tyson Fury Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having held the World Boxing Council, WBC title since defeating Deontay Wilder in 2020, and ''The Ring (magazine), The Ring'' ...

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British rock and pop singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, he is of Scottish and English ancestry. With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the best-selling ...

, Jamie Cullum,

Helene Fischer Helene Fischer ( /heˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɚ/; German: eˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ born Jelena Petrovna Fischer, 5 August 1984) is a Russian-born German singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "Die Kron ...

and Bryan Adams. Williams performed a pair of concerts dubbed "The Robbie Williams Christmas Party" at the SSE Arena on 16 and 17 December 2019 in promotion of the album.

Background

In a Q&A with

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in December 2012, Williams was asked if he would consider doing a Christmas album. "You bet", Williams stated. "I used to hate Christmas, but my wife Ayda has instilled me with Christmas spirit. It used to be a time of year that I didn't care too much for, but she loves it, loves it like a child, and because of that, I now love it, it's a very very special time of the year, and because of that, yes I'm willing to do a Christmas album, and I will do one at one point". Williams began recording the album in June 2019, just before the final leg of his Wynn Las Vegas residency, and concluded in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in October 2019. Williams joked that he was going to call the album ''Achtung Bublé'', a play on words of the U2 album " Achtung Baby", and in reference to Michael Bublé's "monopoly" on the Christmas music market, which he said "must end now". Williams was asked in an interview whether or not there were any plans for Bublé to sing on the album and he answered: "He sang with me on an album of mine called '' Swings Both Ways''. You sort of get it in your head that you can only use that token once. I might be wrong. I should have got him involved."> In an interview with Smooth FM, Williams stated: "I wrote 50 songs for the Christmas Present record. And you can’t write 50 songs in one month because it’s Christmas and you feel Christmassy, so you have to do it when the fancy takes you." Williams initially aspired to cover " Fairytale of New York" as a duet with

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

which the latter declined due to being on

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Critical reception

''The Christmas Present'' received mixed reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 52 based on 4 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Jordan Bassett of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' rated the album 3/5 stars, writing: "The original compositions are richer than the covers. The galloping 'Darkest Night' opens with the fabulous line ''"December in London / Think I’ve just been made redundant"'' and the optimistic 'New Year's Day' borrows quite liberally from George Michael's 'Freedom' on a jubilant bridge where Robbie and a gospel choir rapturously exclaim, ''"Oh! It’s an energy! Oh! The memories!"''" The song "Bad Sharon", featuring

on guest vocals, was called a "favourite" to be the UK Christmas number one.

Singles

" Time for Change" was released as the album's official lead single on 22 November 2019. The album's second single, " Can't Stop Christmas", was released on 20 November 2020.

Commercial performance

''The Christmas Present'' opened at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind Coldplay's ''

Everyday Life Everyday life, daily life or routine life comprises the ways in which people typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis. Everyday life may be described as mundane, routine, natural, habitual, or normal. Human diurnality means most peop ...

''. The album sold 67,000 copies in the UK during its first week, the same amount as Williams' previous album ''

'' (2016). Despite not getting to number one on the charts, Williams' had the fastest selling cassette release in over two decades. ''The Christmas Present'' sold over 10,000 cassettes in its first seven days of release. Halfway through its second week, Williams' album climbed to number one, outselling

's album '' You're in My Heart'' by 5,000 copies and becoming Williams' 13th number one, tying

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

for the most UK number one albums. In its second week, 57,000 copies had been sold. Williams now ties Presley for the most #1's in a solo career, and has 17 number one albums when including his Take That career. ''The Christmas Present'' opened at number two on the Australian music chart, behind Coldplay's ''Everyday Life''. The following week, ''The Christmas Present'' became Williams' first number one album in Australia since '' Reality Killed the Video Star'' 10 years prior.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Present 2019 Christmas albums Christmas albums by English artists Columbia Records Christmas albums Robbie Williams albums