1999 Ronan Keating: When You Say Nothing At All

First solo number one from Keating after the winding up of Boyzone and a cover of a modern country standard (taken from the soundtrack of the inexplicably popular 'Notting Hill'). At the risk of sounding unduly negative before I even start, I can say I have two main beefs with this, the first being the song itself. A typically sentimental eye waterer of love eternal, in its race to say something profound on the state of human relationships, 'When You Say Nothing At All' manages to confuse love with need and even carry an obscure message in it's very title ("You say it best when you say nothing at all") that could equally be taken in a non flattering, patronising way. To make sure it isn't, much of the song's success will depend on it's delivery; a delicate performance (such as, for example, Alison Krauss') can gloss over many of its sins by a reliance on harmony and melody. However, wearing his black and white serious face, Keating intones the lyric as a man at his wits end, a tremulous priest delivering the last rites on the gasping corpse of a song killed off by a tightly wound arrangement that piles on more angst and tension than something advocating communicating through silence really needs. And in this case, far more than I really want to hear. Ever again.