Robbie Williams says his new album is his 'pension'

Robbie Williams says his new swing album 'Swing Both Ways' is his "pension".

The 39-year-old singer has long hoped to emulate the success of his eight-times platinum 2001 swing album, 'Swing When You're Winning', and has waited until now to release a follow-up so he can have something to fall back on when his career ends.

He explained: "Making another swing album has always been on my mind -- it's my pension. I thought it was something I'd do later on in life. Then later on in life came around pretty quickly. It was something I had in my back pocket that really worked and I had a great time doing it."

The 'Candy' hitmaker's new album closely follows the release of his pop comeback record, 'Take the Crown', last year and Robbie - who also reunited with Take That for the group's 2010 album 'Progress' - says swing allows him to spice things up and keep his fans guessing.

He told The Sun newspaper: "It keeps me interested, too. People have known me for 20 years now.

But I could bore people if I just put album after album out. I couldn't release another pop album because I'd just done it - on my own and with Take That. So thankfully I have a little side project I've got going on that's swing."