Back Home – Westlife

Westlife were the band that everyone loved to hate, except those who bought enough of their albums to give them seven number ones from nine releases. One album per year from 1999 to 2007, all released in November and every one of them giving their public exactly what they wanted, and Back Home was no exception, 12 new songs 9 of which were heartfelt ballads with only Something Right, The Easy Way and Pictures In My Head, uptempo numbers to break up the melancholy. But the one time Westlife did attempt to change things was when they released Allow Us To Be Frank, a swing album in response to the most popular week on Pop Idol as the young contestants crooned their way through Big Band numbers and Robbie Williams's successful album Swing When You're Winning, and for Westlife, it didn't really work, becoming only their second album not to top the chart (the first being their debut before they had really got into their stride). Opening Back Home the album with the Michael Buble track Home gave it a contemporary feel although in the hands of Westlife it was just yet another big ballad. The two other covers on Back Home were versions of Lonestar's I'm Already There and Brandy's Have You Ever, both of which were turned into Westlife style numbers to mould in with the originals which also sounded like Westlife slushy romantic ballads, written to order. They may go on for another ten years but their original fans who would have been pre teen at the time of the debut album, would at the time of the release of Back Home, be 20 years old but in 2007 they either showed no signs of changing their allegiance or their daughters were already beginning to see the attraction. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide