You know, it's unsettling being a Stranger in a Strange Land, especially when that strange land is roamed by boybands. Almost exactly one year ago now, as regular readers will know and may still wake up screaming about --- hey, don't blame me! You signed the disclaimer! --- I ventured warily into the world of saccharine sweet melodies, digital pianos and close vocal harmonies, and set out on a voyage of exploration to see whether there actually was anything to boybands, if they had any decent music or if they were all just empty, vacuous, cynical productions of a record industry that literally manufactures stars. What I found mostly validated my preconcepetions, but rather interestingly, not all of them. Oh, I was far from becoming a fan of Boyzone, N'Sync or Blue, and I wasn't exactly going to be rushing out to buy the new Take That album! But somewhat to my surprise I did find some gems among the rubble and rubbish. Now, don't get me wrong: with a very few exceptions the albums I listened to from the bands I selected --- mostly the big four: Boyzone, Westlife, Backstreet Boys and Take That, with a few others thrown into the mix --- were bland, inoffensive, unoriginal and just plain boring. The kind of music you could, had you a modicum of talent and a little time, write while sitting on the toilet. Some of them even sounded like that was how they had been born.
But the odd album surprised me. Take That's "Beautiful world", for example, or Boyzone's "Brother". These albums showed a little more heart, a little more genuine feeling and regard for the music, like it wasn't just there to provide the guys with third or fourth properties or a fleet of flash cars in the garage of each of those properties. Occasionally --- just occasionally mind you --- a song leaks out of one of these albums and touches the heart, sparks the brain and makes you think that maybe, you know, these heads are musicians after all. Often, usually in fact, these are not hit singles, nor meant to be, so it's a rare glimpse inside a hitmaking machine that for once actually stops churning out the number ones and begins to become self-aware, if only for a short while, taking care with, and even pride in, its music. This is one such song.
Talk me down --- Westlife --- 2009
Now let's not run away with ourselves here! Westlife did not write this song; in fact, looking at the tracklisting, as I may have mentioned when I reviewed it for "Stranger in a Strange Land", none of the songs are written by any members of the band. So I guess it's hard then to give them credit for a better song than usual. But then, that's not what I'm trying to do in this section. I don't care who hates Westlife --- I certainly do --- but the point is that there is the odd song of theirs I can stand, and as I suffered through "Where we are" that dark evening back in September 2012 , I suddenly came to life and pricked my ears up when this song came round.
It's not that it's that great even. It just has a certain honest charm about it. It's not one of their usual love songs --- it's no "Flying without wings" or "Queen of my heart", or even "You raise me up", though that was not their song. Westlife have made something of a career of making other people's hits successful singles for them all over again. But this is generally downbeat, laidback, not at all sugary-sweet and with hardly any mention of "girl" at all. It's also driven on some really lonely piano and acoustic guitar. I like the idea of the singer asking the girl to talk him down, as if he's on a ledge ready to jump (ah, if only! Sorry) and it gets powerful and emotional in the latter sections of the song. It's a great idea in a pretty simple song, and to be honest not sure why it wasn't released as a single, though that album seems to have done really badly, with only one single taken from it, and that --- anyone? --- another cover.
But this I like. Yeah, I know it's Westlife. Just don't tell anyone ok? It'll be our secret...