1. 'WHEN YOU'RE LOOKING LIKE THAT'
A rare glimpse of what could happen when the BPM counter hit double figures, and the greatest Westlife single of them all, even with the "she's five foot ten in catsuit and Bambi eyes" line.
2. 'MY LOVE'
An epic of standing-on-a-clifftop proportions. We always liked the idea that there might somewhere be an 18-rated version of this video's introduction in which 'Ver Loife' swore as much as they did in real life. Sadly, as the years have passed, we have been forced to accept that no such fuck-a-thon exists.
3. 'FOOL AGAIN'
This is just a brilliant ballad isn't it.
4. 'WHAT ABOUT NOW?'
Strictly speaking this is a cover version but a) if writing your own material is not exactly one of your key roles in a band you might as well view everything as a cover of sorts, and b) as their manager might say Westlife 'really made the song their own'.
5. 'MANDY'
Most boybands would probably say they were too cool to cover this song. In fact Westlife probably did too, but were forced to record it anyway. And thank fuck for that. 'Mandy' is one of the greatest love songs ever written and by resisting the temptation to dick around with it too much Westlife gave it the position it deserves in the modern pop canon.
Oh Westlife.
You came and you gave without taking.
Well you took quite a lot in terms of live revenue but that's not the point — you grew with your audience, and as you did that we grew to first tolerate then somehow enjoy your place in pop. And now we feel a bit sad to lose one of the last unbroken links between pop in 2011 and pop in 1998, two pop eras different in almost every respect but united in the simple truth that you cannot go wrong with a fucking massive keychange.
