Coast To Coast

• Enhanced, Limited Edition, Import.

At the time of Coast To Coast's release, Westlife could do no wrong. With a staggering record of every one of their seven singles hitting the top spot of the British charts, they were really at the peak of their game. Within a week of this, their second album's release, their cultural forehers Boyzone announced it was game over, leaving their most successful member Ronan Keating balancing his solo career and his job as Westlife's manager, aided and abetted by Louis Walsh, the man who made Boyzone and who was now firmly focused on his five new Irish wonder boys,. Together they have come up with a winning formula--good looks, ballads and gentle pop--and they rigidly stick to it. After all if it ain't broke don't fix it--look what happened to the Spice Girls, swept aside thanks to a combination of a radical change of direction combined with Westlife power. As such, the album itself is hardly a challenging affair, in fact the only things that really jump out and grab you are the aberration that was their duet with Mariah Carey on "Against All Odds" and their butchering of Abba's "I Have A Dream"--taking the lush harmonies of the original and turning them into the aural equivalent of wallpaper paste. However, it isn't all totally bland, there are moments where the harmonies shine through and the pop sensibilities come to the fore, such as "My Love", "When You're Looking Like That" and "Dreams Come True", in fact anything that is remotely up-tempo and a break from the relentless wishy washy nondescript ballads. This is the sound of Westlife at the peak of their career--the only trouble is, with their phenomenal track record and the wonderful fickleness of the British pop charts, the only way from here is down. --Helen Marquis