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Westlife "Gravity" album

- Release date : November 2010 -

Gravity is the eleventh studio album from Irish pop band Westlife. It was released on 22 November 2010 in the United Kingdom through Syco Music, RCA Records, and Sony Music. John Shanks is the entire producer of this project while Simon Cowell is the executive producer of this album.

In early 2010, various reports were spreading that the band and their management have decided not to release a second single from "Where We Are". According to these reports, a new album would be released in the last quarter of 2010 and the group saying they wanted it to be a sexy album. A confirmation was stated by the band member Kian Egan in one of their Where We Are Tour date in Newcastle saying a new album will come out in November.

In 19 July 2010, it was reported by RTÉ that the group will be teaming up with John Shanks. A Westlife insider said: "It's a major coup for Westlife to get this producer - he's produced all the big acts from Bon Jovi to the Backstreet Boys and Take That. They wanted him for their last album but weren't able to get him. They're thrilled that he's agreed to work with them on this album."

"We'd wanted to work with him for a long time, but all his loyalty was to Take That and he didn't want to work with another boyband.[...] We'd been asking him and asking, but literally within moments of Take That deciding to go and work with Stuart Price, he said yes to us straight away. Afterwards he said he'd wanted to work with us for a long time, but he just couldn't do the Take That thing and the Westlife thing because they were too close.[...] John created a sound for us in the same way he created a sound for Take That, a sound for Bon Jovi and a sound for all the other incredible artists he's worked with.[...] He created a sound for Westlife that we haven't had before - it's not a massive departure, but it's definitely a step up in terms of production." - Westlife for Digital Spy

In an interview with AOL Music UK, Westlife described the creative process of the album as "breath of fresh air". "It's a new beginning for Westlife" is how singer Shane Filan described working with legendary pop producer John Shanks.

“It’s a really good album,” says Nicky Byrne. “It’s one producer. It’s one sound. Maybe it’s taken us twelve years to get there. But it doesn’t matter. We’re here now. It’s the kind of record we knew we could make and we just needed the right person to deliver it with us.”

The band recorded the songs in Los Angeles, California, Dublin, Ireland, and London, England.

As the sessions began, it quickly became clear that the recording process would be radically different from anything the lads had ever done before. Nicky recalls, “From day one John said, ‘I’m not going to be ringing Shane up and saying I want him in on Wednesday lunchtime and Kian in on Friday morning. If I’m going to do this, we’re all going to be in the studio together.’ That was the first time anyone had ever said that to us. He made us feel like a real band again.” And injecting that sense of coherence, togetherness and freedom was critical for the group. They had to confront some painful truths about how much creative steam they were lacking. Shane admits, “We made some choices over recent years that we weren’t happy with. We got to a point where we were selling so much, we didn’t think twice about doing a Rat Pack album or an album of covers of love songs. They were selling millions, but we eventually realised we needed some original songs again. For us to keep going as a band, for us to remain excited, we had to write our own material, not just record other people’s songs.”

Nicky explains: “It’s not like it was in the past where we had a lot of covers. John insisted we get involved. Now we’ve got an album of twelve tracks and four are co-written.” Shane reiterates: “It was very natural the way we bonded with John. He really wanted to get us involved in each song. We really feel like we’ve made this album together. We were there from the start to the finish. It feels like we were in the happiest place we have ever been making an album.”

In an interview on OK! Magazine the band told how would Gravity sound, "We just spent three months making the album with John Shanks and I actually - just for comparison - played our last album (which we really loved and we were genuinely really proud of) and there is a massive difference in quality of production on this album. We've definitely moved up quite a bit. And because we’ve done it all with one guy it has a sound from start to finish (our last album was done with five or six people). More of a solid sound. We’ve also written on this album."

In Philippine Star, Shane talked about the difference of Gravity from the past albums and the maturity of the album: “I think Gravity is better not only lyrically but also production-wise. I think the songs are of higher quality. There’s a lot more variety in this album. Safe is probably the only really Westlife sound in the album and all the other tracks have something different about them, although still basically very Westlife. We needed to move a step higher. It’s very important to us and to our producer, John Shanks because we’ve been planning to do that for a long time. We are amazed that we’ve finally done it.[...] As a band, we have grown up, you know, and you will notice it in some of our songs. We feel that we just get better and better as we go on every year. The lyrics of our songs are more mature, especially the last song called Too Hard To Say Goodbye. It’s quite an emotional song.”

On 13 October 2010, the band announced the official album title Gravity and trended worldwide on Twitter as #westlifegravity after the announcement. Band member Mark Feehily adopted the album title suggested by a fan and confirmed it on his Twitter account first. Redcorvette09 or Fiona Reynoldson, the chosen fan explains: "Gravity" from the Safe lyrics. Maybe it's a dedication to your partners and how they've kept you grounded...or maybe about the music always drawing you back in for another album! Could have several meanings."

"Gravity" album tracks and lyrics

"Gravity" album reviews

Irish four-piece Westlife are still going strong 11 years after scoring a U.K. and U.S. hit with debut single "Swear It Again," having avoided the usual "three albums, greatest hits, breakup" career trajectory of most boy bands. But while their chart statistics remain impressive on paper (the previous year's Where We Are and lead single both reached number two), they have been pretty much irrelevant since 2005's Face to Face. Content to release a new album every November, just in time for an X-Factor performance to boost Christmas present-led sales, and then disappear for the following ten months, they've become a seasonal act in the vein of Cliff Richard and Daniel O'Donnell, rather than a contemporary pop presence. But having had the festive period sewn up for the past decade, they now face their toughest test yet, with boy bands both older (the revitalized Take That) and younger (the chart-topping JLS and the Wanted) all releasing albums off the back of huge number ones and airplay staples. But despite claims that Gravity, incredibly their tenth studio album, is the best and most varied of their career, its 12 tracks produced by John Shanks (Bon Jovi) aren't exactly a huge departure from their late-noughties output. Indeed, the likes of lead single "Safe" and "Closer" are the kind of epic Take That-esque pop/rock ballads that they've attempted on their last two releases. And while the first half of their career saw them rely heavily on covers of distinctly easy listening favorites Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, and Brian Kennedy, Gravity continues their more recent tradition of reworking U.S. soft rock anthems, with Hoobastank's "The Reason" given the same MOR polish as previous renditions of tracks by Lonestar and Daughtry. Apart from the minor flashes of electro on opener "Beautiful Tonight" and "No One's Gonna Sleep Tonight," the rest of the album is filled with the same kind of clichéd "stand up for the key change" ballads they are notoriously famous for. The only surprise appears with a faithful cover version of "Chances," the string-led epic from Brit-pop also-rans Athlete, a rather offbeat inclusion considering their predictable and unadventurous history. However, Westlife aren't exactly well known for their original streak, so hardcore fans are unlikely to be disappointed with its safe and familiar sound. But with far more exciting and inventive material from their contemporaries, it could struggle to match the success of their other multi-platinum releases.

*** by Jon O'Brien, All Music Guide ***

With everyone talking about Take That’s reunion and reinvention as an electro pop band, you may have missed the fact that Westlife have undergone a bit of a sonic makeover themselves. Gravity is their most varied and daring album yet, mixing classic pop and rock with subtle electro wizardry. Recent single Safe is their most soaring song in ages, while Chances is a widescreen epic that could melt the hardest of hearts. Closer and Tell Me It’s Love are pretty immense, too. Impressive.

*** OK! Magazine ***

Irish super band Westlife are back with a new album Gravity. With a whole new influx in boybandland it was only a matter of time before one of the world’s biggest boybands would be back. Impressively they managed to become one of the biggest selling boybands around with their first seven singles going straight to number 1 there is no disputing that these guys are not just posers but also talented. So what did we think of Gravity?

First up is Beautiful Tonight and if you were expecting Westlife to keep on doing ballads and sound like choir boys you are in for a surprise as the first track on the album is a very popy and fresh. The song which could easily be released as a single really comes to life during the chorus. This is the Westlife we fell in love with a decade ago.

Next up is current single Safe and hopefully a momentarily relapse of the band as we are treated to a ballad (a nice one nevertheless), which to be fair with its piano and soft sound is perfect for this cold season but still it’s a ballad!

Anyone familiar with Westlife’s music will know that most of their tracks start of slow to then peak into the most grandiose manner and this is certainly true for I Will Reach You, which sounds suspiciously familiar (think What About Now) and follows the bands classic style.

The Reason is another great track on the album and you know this one. Hoobastank’s only hit (this side of the pond anyway) sounds just as epic but if you were expecting Westilfe to be adventurous and change the track in the slightest you are in for sour disappointment. Fortunately for our Irishmen we loved the original.

Didn’t we mention a few songs earlier how we liked when Westlife did the pop stuff too? Well fear not cuz it might take a few ballads to get there but then you’ll reach No One’s Gonna Sleep Tonight! The track isn’t what we would call Westlife’s best pop anthem but it definitely lifts the mood of the album.

Highlights on the album include the really catchy Closer. The track follows Westlife’s trademark sound, quiet then massive amounts of beautiful harmonies meet your ears and for a moment you become a silly romantic again. Another favourite is I Get Weak an overly romantic and dramatic track that just doesn’t seem to get old as we put it on repeat every time. Filan’s angelic voice never ceases to capture our attention and then Mark Feehily proceeds to do the same and before you know it I Get Weak has sucked you into its world of unison harmonies and yeah better get those tissue papers ready.

Westlife’s new album Gravity is a far cry from last year’s Where We Are but still these guys know what they are doing and it will be a long time before we don’t remember who Westlife are. There are definitely some outstanding tracks on this album but also a lack of variety.

*** Entertainment Focus ***