#SongoftheWeek: Westlife – ‘Better Man’

• ARTIST: Westlife
• SONG: Better Man

SO ALEX, WHY IS THIS YOUR SONG OF THE WEEK?

I think before we go any further, it’s worth having a customary refresh of my words twelve weeks ago, back when we had Westlife’s last single ‘Hello My Love’ as my #SongoftheWeek. Chiefly, that I said I could see it being a bigger hit than many were anticipating it to be.

Just for once, my tipping faculties worked, for that single subsequently proved to have resilience that even some of their chart toppers back in the day failed to demonstrate beyond Week 1, and crowned them with another Top 10 hit here, with sales now hovering just around the 200k mark. It’s against this backdrop that their comeback moves into Phase II.

Once again written by Ed Sheeran and Steve Mac, ‘Better Man’ is probably closer in sound to their singles of old – in particular say, ‘Fool Again’ and ‘My Love’. Certainly it’s more what one would expect if you stopped someone on the street and asked them to describe what a Westlife single usually sounds like. Yet at the same time, it’s very current, more so than you would think. In short: it’s a no frills but really likeable contemporary pop ballad.

As I mentioned last time, 9 year old me back in 1999 would probably be horrified that I’ve suddenly been converted into a fan of their work over the first quarter of this year, but only a hardy heart couldn’t admire the way they’ve refused to be viewed as a ‘heritage’ act and have come back with some of the strongest songs of their career, with success that many others on the comeback trail would cut their left arm off for right now. More power to them for it, I say.

‘Better Man’ is available to stream and download now via Virgin EMI. Westlife will perform the single exclusively on tomorrow night’s episode of ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ at 10pm on ITV and their ‘Twenty Tour’ gets under way at the SSE Arena in Belfast on 22nd May – tickets on sale now. Twitter: @WestlifeMusic

Don’t forget to Tweet us or comment below and let us know your thoughts on our #SongoftheWeek this week! Plus you can follow our brand new #SongoftheWeek playlist on Spotify, so you never miss a new song and you hear it first.