Album Reviews

Westlife – Coast To Coast

It's only a year since Dublin's Westlife stormed the charts with their self-titled debut album which went platinum, and it's amazing how quickly they have come up with its successor.
Coast to Coast, the hot new release, is full of songs that could have been composed under a duvet by somebody so in love that it scarcely seemed worth getting out of bed! Actually most of the album's 16 tracks are the work of commissioned writers in Scandinavia. Little heard of songwriters called Rami, Jorgen and Carlsson who have been responsible for penning hits for the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync and Britney Spears.
Coast to Coast isn't exactly fizzing with inventive vigour from beginning to finish and when Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Bryan McFadden, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan sing, it's like the spirit of Danish band Michael Learns to Rock is addressing us.
Both in its lyrical and song detail Coast to Coast sounds very much like something MLTR did, particularly on tracks like My Love, I Lay My Love on You, Close, Dreams Come True and No Place That Far.
There is pop merriment aplenty, but if you mixed up any of these songs with earlier Westlife material you wouldn't know the difference. There is nothing really distinguishing on Coast to Coast with the exception of the hit single Against All Odds, the delightful Soledad and the wonderfully romantic Fragile Heart. Westlife clearly have no time to get arty, so busy are they painting portraits of and telling stories of broken hearts.
Westlife are managed by Boyzone's lead singer Ronan Keating and manager Louis Walsh and you could trace the heritage easily because Coast to Coast also sounds very Boyzoneish. Maybe it will prove a smash hit as well, maybe it won't. But I personally would have liked to have heard something a trifle more versatile from blokes blessed with such astonishing voices.
Rating * * *

Five – Invincible

A British boy-band in the tradition of Take That – Five have always projected themselves as harder-edged Backstreet Boys-type of band. Their target audience has been the teens but they also aspire to be taken more seriously. What separates them from the other boy bands in the business is that they focus not on love songs. Instead Five make songs of dizzying danceable fun: Songs like their first number one hit, Keep on Movin', If Ya Gettin' Down, Don't Wanna Let You Go and the new top ten single We Will Rock You featuring Queen's Brian May.
Invincible was originally released last year, but this special edition includes an enhanced bonus CD featuring five of the band's biggest hits recorded live at the Manchester Evening News Arena. Five obviously are a big hit live and the bonus disc reveals the band at their liveliest whether they're rapping or belting out good-fun pop-rock. Regular fans might feel short changed on the tune front, but others will most certainly be left completely and utterly enthralled. Perhaps that's the whole point of including a mini live album.
On the studio recording Five align themselves to the times of harmony pop, even if their's has a much welcome rougher edge. Clearly the music is designed for heavy commercial rotation and as a whole Invincible is wildly entertaining.
Rating * * * *
Spice Girls – Forever

Not so long ago you would have got some pretty decent odds on the Spice Girls not making this album – most of them having made successful solo debuts. Yet here they are, with the exception of Geri Halliwell, seven years since their debut as stable as ever and headed for more chart success.
Although they can justifiably lay claim to being the pioneers of manufactured pop, the more discerning music fan has been far less susceptible to their charms. Originally written off as psuedo-groovers from an audience who never quite knew what to make of them, the quartet have come roaring back to stake their claim as trend-setters in the bizarre world of man-made pop.
Musically Forever is much richer in content than anything they've made before and there are plenty of funky songs to keep the listener interested. The remainder – and there's a lot – is pop of varying degrees of brightness. Forget the head or the heart, Forever is aimed for the jugular and the girls somehow manage to pull it off.
Having watched each of them go solo, those expecting a loosely made album, will be surprised with the commitment detectable on Forever. Scary Spice, Posh Spice, Sporty Spice and Baby Spice, work their own little patch with considerable expertise, which is what makes songs like Holler (the No1 single), Let Love Lead the Way and Get Down With Me work. Forever is packed with good pop tunes, dealt with skilfully and confidently. Standout tracks also include Wasting My Time, Tell Me Why and If You Wanna Have Some Fun.
Spice Girls fans should find the taste to their liking.
Rating * * * *

Melanie B – Hot

Having endured a divorce and bitter custody battle for her daughter, Spice Girl Melanie B, makes her pop debut with this stylish yet somewhat uninspiring album. Hot makes a promising start with the catchy Feels So Good, but the rest of the material does not hold up all that well to repeated playing. Melanie B, aka Scary Spice, is perhaps best known for her late nineties duet with Missy Elliot, I Want You Back, a track that was a hit of sorts.
Mind you, Hot has the potential to live up to its name, but one gets the feeling of unrepentant arrogance on the part of the singer courtesy lyrics like: "Now I see you don't have no self esteem and all you loved was Mel B's money." The song is a sad commentary for modern day romantics and is a pretty one-sided view.
What follows are nine tracks that would normally have passed as good, amusing R&B, but which sounds so much passe. For the record Mel B doesn't have an exceptional voice or the ideas to really succeed on her own. She sings in sometimes mocking monotone and although the music is reasonably compelling, like on the album's best track Lullaby, there isn't much here to get the mercury rising.
Not all that hot, really.
Rating * *