Westlife -WHERE WE ARE

There was quite an illuminating news story earlier this week regarding Westlife’s relationship with their musical mentor/boss/advisor Simon Cowell. Mark Feehily revealed that despite the X Factor judge’s best attempts the band had refused to record a cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘You Are Not Alone’. Aside from suggesting that Cowell may have some kind of bizarre fascination with the track – he finally got it released this year courtesy of Joe & co – it also suggested people might have got Westlife wrong. Perhaps behind all those drippy covers and stool/standing key changes there was actually a bit of backbone – and, more importantly, some musical taste.

Where We Are, the Irish crooners’ ninth album, has been billed by the group as their darkest and edgiest to date. With songwriting credits from Ryan ‘Bleeding Love’ Tedder and Wayne ‘Sweet Dreams’ Wilkins, and a cover of Daughtry’s ‘What About Now’, they even seem to be eyeing up the American market. Thankfully, this means no more corny Big Band reworkings – another peculiar passion of Cowell’s! However, the group’s mechanical approach to music-making means that even the moderately impressive, Tedder-penned ‘Shadows’ (initially pencilled in for Leona Lewis’s Echo LP) is rendered near-unlistenable thanks to the lads’ cheesy, yearning vocals and all-too-predictable schmaltzy crescendo.

Reading the sleeve notes of the album, it’s difficult to be too sneering about the four-piece. With Kian and Nicky dedicating the track to their late fathers and Mark and Shane writing passionately about how grateful they are still to be in the music biz after 11 years, they come across as well-meaning and hardworking ordinary blokes. But ordinary blokes, sadly, do not make great popstars. Ultimately, it’s the dedications to their management team of Cowell and Louis Walsh which really hint at what this album is about. Each track features a calculated, almost robotic four-minute build-up to that key-change. On the finale for ‘Leaving’, it’s almost possible to hear the tinny din of cash registers ringing as they switch between soppy emotional vocal solos and the drum-kicks, swathes of strings and choral backing.

There’s no doubting that Westlife’s musical formula works: their run of No.1s and album sales prove that. However, when the formula is so blatantly cynical and executed with such little charm, it makes them very hard to love. On the dreary monotony of ‘Talk Me Down’ or the hollering extravaganza of ‘Another World’, the boys certainly hit all the right notes, but there isn’t a drop of passion, genuine emotion or soul to be found anywhere. By the time you’ve made it to ‘I’ll See You Again’, which again builds from tinkled ivories and strings into a swirling, pompous bluster, you’ll be more likely to reach for the sick bag than the repeat button. Knocking Westlife is often considered pointless and snooty, but while they continue to release dross like this, there isn’t really much choice.

Lady GaGa -The Fame Monster

This past Thursday evening we stood outside the office of Interscope Records in New York City. It was a wet, windy and stormy Manhattan evening outside yet the storm was all inside; for it was inside that Lady Gaga’s highly anticipated new album “The Fame Monster” was awaiting our ears.

To say that “The Fame Monster” is something out of this world would be an understatement.

Monster is not just some pop or dance album. It is a powerful mix of sounds that would make the squarest of squares, the most gothic of goths and heaviest of heavy metal fans around stop in their tracks and start popping their heads while immediately getting lost inside their heads to the music. Lady Gaga’s latest offering is captivating, eclectic and quite possibly addictive.

All eight tracks sounded as though they could be hit singles. One in particular was ‘Telephone’ and it’s a song that features Beyonce. ‘Telephone’ blew up inside the head of everyone in the room. It had hit written all over it.

Listening to ‘Telephone’ for the first time reminded us of hearing the Puff Daddy song ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ featuring Faith Evans. It makes everyone want to listen to it again and again and we’re almost certain there will be a time in the not too distant future when everyone won’t be able to get away from ‘Telephone.’ It’s very likely to be all over the radio in heavy rotation and blasting out of cars left and right.

The one song that came off as being slightly different than the rest was a track called ‘Alejandro’ which almost sounds as if it’s an Ace Of Base song, except if anything it sounds as if it’s a good Ace of Base song; think a perfect blend of ‘Don’t Turn Around’ and ‘Sign’ except really, really good.

Another track that deserves attention is ‘So Happy I Could Die’ which comes off as being a love song about how happy Lady Gaga makes herself. Yes, with lyrics such as “I touch myself all through the night” it sure as heck seems to be a good old fashioned song about the art of self pleasure.

Being a master of self pleasure could be the reason that would explain how Lady Gaga remains a single gal about town. Who better to come home to after a long night out but yourself when you’re currently the hottest princess of pop who possesses a pair of magic hands?

It’s amazing to see the buzz and anticipation revolving around ‘The Fame Monster.’ The stunning video for the first single ‘Bad Romance’ has well over 10,000,000 plays on youtube so far and that’s in a span of time that is roughly five days. Incredible!

“The Fame Monster” drops November 23rd and arrives in three different forms. An $8/eight song album; an $18 deluxe version that has the combined songs from ‘Fame’ and Monster and a super deluxe version that has the combined songs from ‘Fame’ and Monster plus a strand of Lady Gaga’s hair and a larger volume of accompanied artwork that when priced at $95 is a must have for the diehard Lady Gaga fans.

(from starpulse)