I’m trying to catch up on new releases, so the following reviews are for music that came out in January, but not necessarily today and, not everything released on January 23, 2026 appears in this post. This week’s batch of reviews includes Robbie Williams Britpop, The Cribs Selling a Vibe, Maria Somerville Luster (Remixes) and Draag Miracle Drug. Keep reading for the details.
Robbie Williams Britpop
The first thing, and maybe only thing, you need to know about Britpop, the newest album from Robbie Williams, is that there is a song on it called “Morrissey” and it is brilliant. It doesn’t sound like a Morrissey song on the surface. But, it’s also not so much about the singer as it is about a parasocial relationship with him. That alone is peak Morrissey. Think of “Paint a Vulgar Picture,” “Last of the Famous International Playboys” and how many other top-tier Moz anthems all about the love one feels for someone they don’t actually know. This should have been the lead single, but, the reality is that few people will get it.
The rest of the album is a solid mix of rock and pop. At times, it is extremely Britpop. “Spies” and “All My Life” sound like they were written after an Oasis reunion concert. “Cocky” has a lot of U.K. Jagger swagger. “It’s OK Until the Drugs Stop Working” lives up to the album’s title, like a Walker Brothers-meets-northern soul-inspired ‘90s Britpop song. I like Williams best when he’s a little meta, like on “Rock DJ” (which, btw, was a big club hit here in L.A. in the early ‘00s) and that’s where Britpop slays. He doesn’t keep up the cheeky, British pop references throughout the album, but there’s enough packed in to make it worthwhile.
Get Britpop by Robbie Williams.
The Cribs Selling a Vibe
“Selling a Vibe,” the title track from The Cribs’ new album, is a poignant song for the moment, one that, lyrically, can be applied to so many schemes in this golden age of grifting. Everyone from tech bros to influencers to wannabe dictators are just selling vibes. Maybe it’s fitting that the song itself doesn’t neatly fit into a single vibe. It’s kind of like a punk spin on Beach Boys-style songwriting. Pretty sure there’s no playlist for that on Spotify. There’s some very clever songwriting and production on here and The Cribs aren’t afraid to veer away from convention on songs like “If Our Paths Never Crossed,” “You’ll Tell Me Anything” and “Distractions.” Still, this album is catchy af. I bet you can’t avoid the “A Point too Hard to Make” earworm.
Get Selling a Vibe by The Cribs.
Maria Somerville Luster (Remixes)
Last year, I saw Maria Somerville live at Zebulon and was struck by the ‘90s-ness of the performance, which, tbh, is really an anti-performance. Read my review for the details, but, the gist of it is that Somerville live is antithetical to how concerts are expected to look and sound in the social media era. The same can be said about Somerville’s new collection of Luster remixes. I know this is hard to imagine in a time where people pay $100+ to see touring DJs play generic house edits of the same songs they danced to at all their cousins’ weddings, but remixing actually is its own art form. Back in the ‘90s, remixing got really weird, where you would have Armand Van Helden twisting Tori Amos piano rock into an absolute monster banger and Aphex Twin stripping down a Jesus Jones song into intelligent dance music. Remixes were kind of all over the place and that’s the energy that Luster (Remixes) captures. It begins with Seefeel’s IDM-ish reworking of “Stonefly” and, for the next 27 minutes, we get a taste of everything from darkwave on Fatshaudi’s remix of “Up” to industrial in YHWH Nailgun’s take on “Violet.” The sounds gets heavier as the remix album progresses, with oscar18 and Asa Nisi Masa turning up the bass and distortion for “Corrib” and Boris teasing out the noise in “October Moon.”
Get Luster (Remixes) by Maria Somerville
Draag Miracle Drug
Picture yourself living the ‘90s life. You’re driving a beat up car, the bumper is loaded with stickers repping everyone from Björk to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Your radio is tuned into the low end of the FM dial as you reach the exact destination where two college stations intersect. Through the static, you can hear the piercing screams of a hardcore band. You don’t know their name, but they are probably from San Diego and wear white belts with their Dickies. Underneath the noise, you hear a shoegaze band from some American college town. They too wear Dickies, but with sweaters sourced from thrift stores or grandma and grandpa’s closets and barrettes from the local dollar store. The two bands fight to dominate the signal, creating a cacophony that you find oddly pleasant. That’s the sound of “Miracle Drug,” the title track off the latest EP from L.A.-based Draag. Eventually, the shoegaze band wins, which you can hear throughout the rest of six-track collection, as you make your way to the last real deal coffee house in town where you and your friends will talk about subverting the dominant paradigm and bringing down corporate culture, especially fucking Starbucks, not knowing that you will lose big and this cycle will repeat every ten years, complete with the hardcore-meets-shoegaze soundtrack and the rise of an even more unhinged right wing to follow.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
Listen to the January, 2026 Beatique Mix.
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