Westlife  (Audio CD) 
by Westlife

Can we embrace yet another boy band? Bring 'em on! Here come Kian, Mark, Bryan, Shane, and Nicky--five knock-out Irish lads who were selling millions of CDs in Europe while the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync competed for teenaged hearts in the U.S. Thank goodness for Westlife that pubescent crushes are as transferable as a comic strip to Silly Putty; the group is geared to storm the States head-on and threatening to overtake a few well-entrenched heartthrobs. Citing the Backstreet Boys as an early influence (when 3 years is more than 10 percent of your whole life, it scales ), the vocal-harmony quintet's sound is exactly like you'd expect. The album contains no Backstreet-bombast dance singles--these guys opt for Boyz II Men balladeering. Their perfectly melded voices wail, soar, and sooth with impressive emotional impact capable of igniting countless gymnasium-turned-dance-hall romances. Those who remember will wince at the implications of Westlife's verbatim cover of Extreme's "More Than Words." --Beth Massa