The World and Her Mother

About

The World and Her Mother is one of the new songs on XXV, written by Robbie Williams, Karl Brazil and Owen Parker, and arranged by Owen Parker with Steve Sidwell. Williams first teased the song during his 2020 lockdown “Corona-oke” sessions under the working title Ravers Soul. The finished version expands that idea into a vivid reflection on youth, rebellion and the rave culture of the early 1990s.

Opening with shimmering synths and a laid-back groove, the track fuses nostalgic pop with orchestral colour. The lyrics look back on the chaos of adolescence and the hunger for freedom, portraying a young man on the edge of change: “We walk on broken glass just to get back home, a heart of gold and a raver’s soul.” The warm, elastic arrangement complements the theme of wistful celebration, while Williams’s vocal strikes a balance between affection and self-awareness.

He explained that the song revisits the “lost bits pre-rehab,” when he lived at the centre of dance and DJ culture. The nostalgic tone acknowledges both the excitement and the risk of that time, turning hedonism into memory. The orchestral elements, subtly woven into the rhythm, lend a cinematic scope to an otherwise understated groove.

“It’s an ode to that moment when youth culture was changing — the acid house, the raves, the feeling of being on the precipice of something massive.”Robbie Williams

Joyful, bittersweet and unmistakably autobiographical, The World and Her Mother captures the freedom and folly of Williams’s early years. It adds texture and perspective to the reflective narrative that defines XXV.