In my last post, I was talking bout Face to Face, and how much I regret not getting the album earlier... and I don't actually think I'll change my stand on this anytime soon. Yep, so it's not their best album (by my standards) and still quite far from the record they set with Coast to Coast (my all -time favourite No.1 album and I reckon, their best) but it's good enough for me, and all Westlife fans I suppose. Considering Allow Us To Be Frankalmost killed their reputation; I really thought they were going to crash and burn together with the album. Thank god it never even came close to that. Alas, the lads are returning to do what they do best - Pop (:
This seventh album only serves to remind me why I love them in the first place - Shane's near-flawless voice, Mark's powerful and soaring vocal and along with Nicky and Kian, the classic Westlife harmony (which is near-perfect, I might add). A combination that never fails to make Westlife songs special and close to my heart. Maybe it's because they took quite some time to come up with this new album (excluding the Rat Pack album, Turnaround was released in 2003!) but the songs in this album appeal to me so much..
The bad side of this album: 1) Too few (only 11 on the international version; compare this with the debut 18 tracks) tracks!! 2) With the departure of Brian, I expected to hear more of Nicky and Kian, especially Nicky (he has this distinctive voice which I really like a lot), but Mark and Shane still dominated (I ain't complaining). 3) It'd have been better if more songs were self-written by them or at least, original songs. Aside from these, you can safely go grab your copy now; don't miss out on vintage Westlife XD
All in all, this is a 5-star album (kinda like Teddy Geiger's Underage Thinking - another great album) which I can listen to from start to end over and over again and still enjoy it (: Even if you're not a Westlife fan, I suppose this is an awesome album to chill out to ;) Review (From the Label) - ... "A new start and a new chapter… but the Westlife story is far from over." p.s. You can diss and hate Westlife for all you want (for being a boyband, that's like the worst crap ever; dissing someone cuz of the label boyband??), but you can't write off a band like them, having released 7 albums, 13 No.1 UK Singles, countless world tours and still going strong after being ditched by 1 member, give them some credits. You know you want to.
