1999 Westlife: Flying Without Wings

'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' as they say, and that's certainly a reliable tenet to live by as far as Westlife are concerned; 'Flying Without Wings' is another chunk of soft rock balladry, though perhaps it's fairer to say it's more refined from the wailing excesses of the past rather than 'fixed'. Too refined maybe - for me, 'Flying Without Wings' is a piece better suited to older lungs. A Joe Cocker or a Bette Midler could bring a certain Rushmore gravitas to the proceedings to take the edge off the song's spiralling and predictable passage from hushed opening to hand wringing finale. In the hands of Westlife, it feels like trying to deal with the policeman who turns up to investigate your burglary when he's thirty years younger than yourself; it doesn't feel 'right' does it? Which means that whilst 'Flying Without Wings' is a decent enough example of what it is, Westlife themselves add nothing to the mix and instead let themselves be carried along by a bluster that's probably best accompanied by a montage of inspirational video clips of tearful people hugging. By itself, it kind of leaves me cold.