WESTLIFE - "Unbreakable" (Patreon)

(#941, 16th November 2002)

They’re perhaps not intended to be, but Greatest Hits albums are often a sign of a band’s waning vitality, a signal to the fans that the group are moving to an autumnal phase, inviting listeners to tread their way through former hits like fallen leaves. The odd new track can’t truly hide the marks of age. “Unbreakable” is not an odd new track, in fact it’s relentlessly plain, an acoustic-led plod through the Westlife formula which does the things you’d expect in the places you’re expecting them. It’s unmistakable, indeed.

The video is a curious thing, casting the track as a tragic ballad, with a car crash, and a young woman receiving the news of her lover’s demise, precisely as the key change comes in. It’s probably no more than a director’s doomed attempt to find something interesting to do with the song, but I’d like to believe it’s a collective cry for help from the lads, too, trapped on their power ballad hamster wheel. Though if Westlife are harbouring a hidden lust for dissolution, a secret death-drive urge to end this awful, relentless tedium, “Unbreakable” the song hides it abominably well. 

2 out of 10