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poptimists2008-03-10 11:17 pm
katstevens.livejournal.com) wrote in poptimists2008-03-10 11:17 pm
Entry tags:
Westlife mumblings
(I would have posted this on the chart poll comments earlier today but I had to do Work innit.)
Over the last four months or so, I've started to take an interest in Westlife. I think it started with them doing a top 100 countdown on Hits!TV, when I realised that these days it's extremely easy to tell them apart. There's the Lead Westlife, who grins all the time and looks super smug in the Post Office ad. There's Bleached Fringe Westlife, who is currently leading the pie eating stakes bless him. There's Tall Cross-Eyed Westlife, who generally has spiky black hair. And there's the Other Westlife, who is the one that least springs to mind (spiky blonde highlights). Process of elimination, innit. Oh, and the Not In Westlife Anymore Westlife, who married Kerry Katona that time and who looks like a bigger-faced Daniel Bedingfield. See? Easy!
For most of their TEN YEAR career I managed to utterly avoid any exposure to Westlife, so I have no idea if their voices have matured over time, or if they've finally relaxed into the current line-up now NIWA Westlife has buggered off. But I have a sneaking suspicion that both of these things are true, and that it's paying dividends. In 'Us Against The World', the boys are confident enough to let the beautiful melody come to the front with minimal faff, but still deliver the powerful oomph that enables the chorus to soar away over their heads. It's like they respect that the song is the end, and they are merely the means.
Oh man, that chorus! I hum it while I'm doing the washing up! Sometimes I imagine the melody over the top of the schaffle-bosh noises from Basshunter's 'Now You're Gone' instead of the delicate piano.
Regular readers will know I rarely pay attention to lyrics; with crisp piano ballads like this they're harder to ignore. It's a well-trodden crooner theme of 'we'll get through these hard times because we're in love'. You think it's tough now, come to Sligo! What's interesting though is that each member of Westlife could plausibly be singing this to the other three: "Cause it's us against the world/Me and you against them all/If you listen to these words/Know that we are standing tall." Don't worry chaps! We, the pop group Westlife, are all-powerful! Fie upon the h8tas! We sell loads of meta records and there's nothing they can do about it! Mwahahhaaha.
Of course no-one is buying this record because they're interested about the 'Loife's internal politics. Except... I am! I mean, how the hell have they been going for ten years? Does one of them ever fancy doing something more up-tempo and get shouted down? Why does no-one make bosh remixes of their songs? Are they aiming for a different audience to the one they're getting? Why are they immediately written off by pretty much everyone who writes about music in the UK, including myself up until very recently? Surely this must piss them off immensely?
Most importantly, do any poptimists out there have even the slightest bit of interest in Westlife, or is there actually something wrong with me?
Over the last four months or so, I've started to take an interest in Westlife. I think it started with them doing a top 100 countdown on Hits!TV, when I realised that these days it's extremely easy to tell them apart. There's the Lead Westlife, who grins all the time and looks super smug in the Post Office ad. There's Bleached Fringe Westlife, who is currently leading the pie eating stakes bless him. There's Tall Cross-Eyed Westlife, who generally has spiky black hair. And there's the Other Westlife, who is the one that least springs to mind (spiky blonde highlights). Process of elimination, innit. Oh, and the Not In Westlife Anymore Westlife, who married Kerry Katona that time and who looks like a bigger-faced Daniel Bedingfield. See? Easy!
For most of their TEN YEAR career I managed to utterly avoid any exposure to Westlife, so I have no idea if their voices have matured over time, or if they've finally relaxed into the current line-up now NIWA Westlife has buggered off. But I have a sneaking suspicion that both of these things are true, and that it's paying dividends. In 'Us Against The World', the boys are confident enough to let the beautiful melody come to the front with minimal faff, but still deliver the powerful oomph that enables the chorus to soar away over their heads. It's like they respect that the song is the end, and they are merely the means.
Oh man, that chorus! I hum it while I'm doing the washing up! Sometimes I imagine the melody over the top of the schaffle-bosh noises from Basshunter's 'Now You're Gone' instead of the delicate piano.
Regular readers will know I rarely pay attention to lyrics; with crisp piano ballads like this they're harder to ignore. It's a well-trodden crooner theme of 'we'll get through these hard times because we're in love'. You think it's tough now, come to Sligo! What's interesting though is that each member of Westlife could plausibly be singing this to the other three: "Cause it's us against the world/Me and you against them all/If you listen to these words/Know that we are standing tall." Don't worry chaps! We, the pop group Westlife, are all-powerful! Fie upon the h8tas! We sell loads of meta records and there's nothing they can do about it! Mwahahhaaha.
Of course no-one is buying this record because they're interested about the 'Loife's internal politics. Except... I am! I mean, how the hell have they been going for ten years? Does one of them ever fancy doing something more up-tempo and get shouted down? Why does no-one make bosh remixes of their songs? Are they aiming for a different audience to the one they're getting? Why are they immediately written off by pretty much everyone who writes about music in the UK, including myself up until very recently? Surely this must piss them off immensely?
Most importantly, do any poptimists out there have even the slightest bit of interest in Westlife, or is there actually something wrong with me?
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well then you might be interested in the Wideboys' remix. you can hear it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt3b4CiJ39I), though murky youtube audio doesn't do it justice really - search out a proper mp3 version 'coz it's got this wonderfully crisp sound, i especially love the way the synth flashes and zaps through the chorus.
btw i don't know how much you're generally acquainted with Wideboys, but i think they're one of the greatest UK garage producer teams ever: they've done tons of great tunes and remixes over the years, and they still keep coming up with the goods (their recent Cahill remixes (http://www.bm-soho.com/store/StockID/1762204/cahilltrippin/on/you) are absolutely stellar). they're very versatile, and recently they've also started seriously dabbling in pop-house... with much less exciting results. they're churning out house remixes left and right, and most of it's either shoddy mersh electrohouse or sounds like poor man's Freemasons (who are poor man's Moto Blanco anyway!!!). so i was very heartened to hear a Wideboys house remix that's actually really good stuff. it even sounds a bit Swedish!
uh... i've gone a bit offtopic, haven't i? well i don't have much of an opinion on Westlife anyway: their relentless balladeering is kinda impressive, but it's also impressively non-memorable (to me at least), all of it: it's like a whole career made of striving for a "No Matter What" moment and failing miserably.
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I'm not totally convinced by the Wideboys version - the meaty electro beats are very crisp as you say, and sound good with their voices, but there's no variety over the whole song. That might sound a bit bonkers if you compare it with the original, but I think the remix could do with some tweaking. Still, it's a step in the right direction!
Re: Westlife's unmemorableness, perhaps it's just a personality problem (as the Lex says below, they have been pretty anonymous) in that while they may be cracking singers, they don't appear in the papers bitching about people or drunkenly falling out of nightclubs or living in palaces made out of cocaine. Is personality a requirement for critical acclaim?
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(Anonymous) 2008-03-11 05:03 am (UTC)(link)(Anonymous posted deliberately to avoid the shame of approving vaguely of much-hated single. Ten points if you guess who I am!)
Let's have a listen!
The video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LcsGaBicDNA) is curious - it's very Backstreet Boys to look at (the white outfits, close-ups of them not singing and looking serious, slow walking down a corridor, much arm-spreading). This one is definitely homing in on the Clean Cut Young Men factor to reel in the young fan-girls rather than the mums/grans. Like I said, I know pretty much nothing about Westlife apart from that Bryan left about half-way through their career. I wonder if he took the younger fans with him, or if those younger fans just grew up? Or both?
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I think what bugs me about them is how the four/five-voice harmonies generally diffuse any intensity in the ballads rather than enhance it: when I hear a megaballad I generally want to hear one voice against the elements, as it were - big ballads are awesome (huge generalisation alert) because they're about a person at an emotional crisis point. Whereas the massed voice effect on Westlife hits is all about stability and emotional strength and succour. Which isn't an invalid effect for pop or music but if I want it I'd probably listen to a brass band or something! I think my favourite Westlife track is their Mull Of Kintyre biter, "Queen Of My Heart", which is probably the purest expression of what I'm talking about too.
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I used to think that Westlife were one of the few bands who would never see critical reevaluation - I guess with this post I am wrong! But sorry Kat I still think they're pretty much the worst kind of music possible. I remember once looking at a picture of them and realising, quite disturbingly, that even though I was looking at them I had no idea what any of them looked like - this is exactly the effect of their music. When I hear it I literally have no idea what it sounds like.
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If this is the case, I'm confused as to why they continue to attempt it then! I think they're definitely talented enough vocalists to really experiment with other styles. And even if this ran the risk of alienating their fanbase, they could just churn out another love album quick smart.
I still think they're pretty much the worst kind of music possible
Fair enough. Until recently I'd have been inclined to agree with you, as they had failed to make an impression on me (worst kind of music for me = music that fails to inspire a reaction). But now they *have* caught my interest, and I want to seek out what (if anything) I've been missing.
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This thread pins down quite how hard it is to analyse WL's music though or even work out its roots. Hymns are in there somewhere, so are close-harmony groups, so are power ballads. They're sneakily original!
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(Anonymous) 2008-04-04 09:40 am (UTC)(link)