If there is one trope in the music writer’s handbook that is too often viewed as a subtext heavy shorthand for “Their last album wasn’t much cop”, then it is – or a variation thereof – “a real return to form”. Except, in the case of our long time fave, Olly Murs, it absolutely applies here.
Here’s the thing. There was an unshakeable sense with his last album, 2022’s Marry Me, that something was amiss, even if it did become another chart topping album for him. Indeed, the overall sound of said album seemed to be so preoccupied with trend chasing and TikTok virality, that it had somewhat missed the mark in being a consistent sounding body of work.
Fast forward three years, and with his eighth studio album, Knees Up, which comes at the end of a year where he has packed out arenas the land over once again with his celebratory 15 Years of Hits anniversary tour, ventured into hosting a weekend breakfast radio slot with fellow Essex boy Mark Wright on Heart, and welcomed a son, Albie, into his family with wife Amelia and their daughter Maddie, this absolutely is a return to form – whilst at the same time being a pleasing diversion from the norm.
Most of the preamble for this album has focused in on Murs saying that this was the record he wanted to make after he came off The X Factor in 2009. More often than not, this expression in pop music has a long history with setting alarm bells off with a wider audience and can unravel in practice – see Kylie Minogue’s Impossible Princess in 1997, or Robbie Williams‘ Rudebox album in 2006 (although side note: that remains one of his best. And back to your regularly scheduled review).
One listen to the title track which opens the record, a 160 bpm, drum’n’bass, ska and brass infused belter, and it is hard to dispute that this is the kind of music he has probably been waiting his whole career to make, as he directly addresses his audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show / I see you at the back down to the front row / Now this might not be what you expected / So lemme give you what you requested”.
His mission statement set out, the rascal ska vibes continue on into the album’s killer first single from the summer, “Save Me”, a bold lead and reference point for the album, with tongue in cheek lyrics that make a nod to the many rowdy nights out in Essex he enjoyed prior to his success: “Catch my reflection in the mirror, can’t believe what I see / Half a kebab on my chin, and I got sick on my jeans”.
The influence of Madness, The Streets – hell, even the much missed Loveable Rogues, who once supported him on tour after their own stint on Britain’s Got Talent – sonically flows through this album, especially on tracks like “Honest” and the second single, “Bonkers”, a half rapped skank with an intro that sounds like the “Ello” worm off of Labyrinth (trust us, it does), which is one of four songs here that reunites him with Ed Drewett, who he previously worked with on 2012’s Right Place Right Time album, notably on his smash hit “Dear Darlin'”.
There’s also the hook laden “Yesterday’s News”, a Studio 1 indebted jam, with lyrics that make a pointed answer back to his industry and social media commentators about the many tabloid generated scandals they have put him in that “got me in trouble with the missus for shit I didn’t do” that feels very earnest without being preachy on the subject.
“Cut To The Chase” is a pleasing swerve into Michael Bublé style big band, whilst “Love = Madness” is a sweet and lilting love song that sounds very evocative of “Accidental” from the first album. And then there’s the current single, “Run This Town”, which started life as a demo for his first album way back in 2010, co-written by Preston from The Ordinary Boys and Mark Taylor of Metrophonic.
It’s so imperial phase Murs coded; indeed, it could have quite easily gone on his second album, 2011’s In Case You Didn’t Know, whilst also sounding like a great lost single by The Zutons, thanks to its awesome sax solo, with an earworm, hands aloft chorus – “And we can run this town tonight / Restless hearts that beat together / It’s us against the world forever” – that you can’t quite believe it’s taken 15 years to make it onto an album.
Rounding things off is “Chin Up”, a sincere and reassuring hug of a song, written with the theme of supporting friends through struggles with their mental health at its core: “You gotta keep your chin up, son / Cause everything’s gonna be fine / And everything goes in time / When you come unstuck”. It is an excellent follow on from his previous song on the subject, “Talking To Yourself”, from 2018’s You Know I Know album, and brings another layer of depth.
Because here’s the thing. Whilst Olly may have wanted to make this album back in 2010, Knees Up could only ever have happened now, in 2025, with the years of experience he has but also the courage and the release of the need to people please that has come from the long career he has rightly built up. As a result, this is probably his most – pardon the pun – honest album to date.
Tellingly, it’s looking like this album will be the only one of his to date not to be promoted with an accompanying tour next year (a one off show performing the album in full plus his hits is in the diary for next month at Kentish Town Forum in London, but nothing else as of yet is in the diary beyond that).
But that underlines what this chapter of his career will be reviewed as retrospectively when in years to come; the moment he took a creative risk, threw expectations and caution to the wind and released a triumphant album, irrespective of its wider commercial appeal, that showcased all the facets of what continues to make him one of Britain’s most universally appealling male popstars.
RATING: 5/5
STREAM THESE: “Run This Town”, “Yesterday’s News”, “Love = Madness”, “Chin Up”
Knees Up is available now via BMG / ICYDK Music. Olly will perform the album in full along with some of his biggest hits at a special one off show at the Kentish Town Forum in London on Monday 8th December – tickets on sale now. Instagram: @ollymurs
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