STACK #256 February 2026

MUSIC FEATURE

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BUSH WEEK I n 1978, Kate Bush released her debut single. Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights , the song soared to the top of the charts in the UK and Australia. Unfortunately, Charli XCX doesn’t cover the Kate Bush classic, but she has acknowledged the song as an inspiration. Charli said she felt she’d been “hit Charli XCX follows a Brat summer with a breathtaking movie soundtrack.

AUSSIE CONNECTION

Wuthering Heights stars two Aussie actors – Margot Robbie is Catherine, and Jacob Elordi is Heathcliff.

The lyrics quoted some of the dialogue of the novel’s main character, Catherine Earnshaw, including the lines, “I’m so cold”, “Let me in” and “Bad dreams in the night”. Fast forward nearly five decades and another young star, Charli XCX, is releasing an album called Wuthering

by a truck” when her 2024 album, Brat , became part of the zeitgeist. Worried that she’d lost her mojo, she was inspired

FILM FACTS There have been more than 12 movie adaptations of Wuthering Heights .

by Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights script. When the director asked her to write a song for the

movie, she came up with 12. The soundtrack’s first single, House , is a collaboration with The Velvet Underground’s John Cale. Charli says the piece made her cry. Charli has described the album as “elegant and brutal... undeniably raw, wild, sexual, gothic, and British.” Jeff Jenkins

Heights . It’s the soundtrack to the

blockbuster new movie adaptation of Brontë’s novel.

The movie is based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, which tells the tale of the turbulent relationship of a woman named Catherine Earnshaw and her father’s adopted son, Heathcliff. THE STORY

The Wuthering Heights soundtrack is out Feb 13 via Inertia

Wuthering Heights

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Robbie Williams channels his inner Marty McFly on his new album.

Robbie Williams

R obbie Williams calls his new album his “DeLorean moment”, referring to the time travelling car in the blockbuster movie franchise Back to the Future .

that I wanted to write and release after I left Take That in 1995,” he explains. “It was the peak of Britpop and a golden age for British music.” The result is a record that Robbie calls “raw”. “There are more guitars, and it’s an

some ‘Brit’ in there and there’s certainly some ‘pop’ too.” Robbie is buzzing when he talks about the record, pointing out that he got to work with some of his heroes. The first single, Rocket , features Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. And the album features a song called Morrissey , a bittersweet ode to the Smiths singer, which Robbie wrote with his old Take That bandmate Gary Barlow. Robbie had intended to release Britpop in October last year, but he shelved those plans when Taylor Swift unveiled The Life of a Showgirl . “I could pretend it’s

not [deliberately avoiding going head-to-head with Taylor], but it is,” he admitted. “It’s selfish – I want a 16th number one album.” Jeff Jenkins

Britpop

by Robbie Williams is out Feb 6 via Sony

Yep, for his 13th studio album, Britpop , Robbie Williams is returning to the glory days of the ’90s. “I set out to create the album

CHART FACT

With Britpop , Robbie Williams is out to beat The Beatles. With the soundtrack to his biopic Better Man , Robbie scored his 15th number one album in the UK – tying the Fab Four’s record. In Australia, Robbie has had five chart-topping albums.

album that’s even more upbeat and anthemic than usual. There’s

Britpop was a cultural movement in the UK in the ’90s, which featured the rise of guitar-based British alternative pop and rock, led by bands such as Blur, Oasis, Suede, and Pulp. SO, WHAT IS BRITPOP?

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