Some people are lucky, baby - I guess I am too

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts.

07/12/03 : Turnaround - Westlife

Ah - there was me thinking I'd have a Busted album to bop about to, but it turns out I've already written that up, so I get this instead. Lucky me, eh? This is out FIFTH visit with them Oirish lads - I've just checked Google and there's a very strong chance if I stick with things that I'll get to listen to all TWELVE of their studio albums. However, last time I met them in '05 they were surprisingly bearable, so there's some hope for this.

Well, it's not dreadful but it's not great. It sounds like they'd slightly stepped away from their Oirish roots and adopted a slightly more US rocky/country kinda sound - maybe they were trying to break it over there (if they were, it failed). All in all, I'd say it's pretty dull - they even managed to de-cheese "Mandy" and what's the point in covering Barry if you ain't gonna fully lean in to the Stilton? I'm left not really understanding the point to this - it just seems unnecessary.

We're at #2 in the chart this week on their second week of a nineteen week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its debut week - for some strange reason it also had a two week run in '04 and a three week run in '05. The rest of the top five were Will Young (a new entry), Dido, Michael Jackson and Busted and the next highest new entry was Alicia Keys (#13 - it had a 41 week run but that was as high as it got). 

Wikipedia tells us it's their fourth album and the last one to feature Bryan McFadden who left to spend time with his family (who promptly embarked on a solo career and then become a TV show host, so maybe the family weren't that keen on seeing him). The critics were surprisingly nice about it with RTE claiming it's "grittier", which I guess is true but only because we started from a very ungritty place indeed. Commercially it did pretty well across Europe, getting to #1 here and (of course) in Ireland - bizarrely, it also got to #2 in South Korea.

"Customers also listened to" Boyzone and numerous solo albums from various members of both groups. There's nothing obviously wrong with this album but that doesn't make it right, I'm afraid.

30/11/03 - A missed opportunity
14/12/03 - Astonishingly tolerable