Back Home (Westlife album)

Back Home
Studio album by Westlife
Released	5 November 2007 (2007-11-05) (See release history)
Recorded	2007 London, United Kingdom Stockholm, Sweden Los Angeles, U.S.
Genre	Pop, pop rock, dance-pop, electropop
Length	47:29
Language	English
Label	Syco, Sony BMG, RCA
Producer	Arnthor Birgisson, David Kreuger, Steve Mac, Per Magnusson, Quiz & Larossi, Rami Yacoub
Westlife chronology
The Love Album (2006) Back Home (2007) Where We Are (2009)
Singles from Back Home
"Home" Released: 29 October 2007 "Us Against The World" Released: 3 March 2008 "Something Right" Released: 4 April 2008

Back Home
Video by Westlife
Released	5 November 2007 (2007-11-05)
Genre	Pop
Label	Sony BMG
Westlife chronology
Live At Wembley (2006) Back Home (2007)
Main article: Back Home Tour

Back Home is the eighth studio album by Irish boy band Westlife, released on 5 November 2007 through Syco Music, Sony Music and RCA Records. The album was produced by Steve Mac, Quiz & Larossi, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger and Rami Yacoub, who also produced some of the group's previous material. Back Home was the group's final album before their temporary break from music in 2008.

The album was preceded by the lead single "Home", a cover version of the Michael Bublé song, which was sent to radio stations on September 2007, and was eventually released as a digital download and CD single on 29 October 2007. Two more singles were released to promote the album, namely "Us Against the World" and "Something Right". A DVD also accompanied the album's release, including some of the group's recent music videos and exclusive footage of the group.

The album was met with mixed reviews, however the album was a commercial success. The album debuted at #1 on the Official UK Album Charts, selling 132,000 copies in its first week of release and remained in the top three spots for eight consecutive weeks.^[1][2][3]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[4]
Channel24	[5]
Daily Express	[6]
Digital Spy	[7]
Entertainment.ie	[8]
Galaxie Magazine Malaysia
iAfrica	[9]
Rovi	[10]
The Daily	[11]
This Is Aberdeen	(favorable) [12]

Background

The tracklisting for the album was released on the band's official website on 3 October 2007, with track-by-track videos by the band. The release date of the album was brought forward to 5 November 2007 from the initial 12 November 2007. The album contains a collection of brand new tracks along with a few covers. The cover songs on the album are "Have You Ever", a Diane Warren penned ballad previously recorded by Brandy, and "I'm Already There", a song recorded by Lonestar. The first single from the album is a cover of the ballad "Home", originally by Michael Bublé, and was released on 29 October 2007^[13] The song debuted at #3 on the official UK singles chart.^[14] "Us Against The World", an original song dedicated to Westlife fans worldwide, was released as the band's second single on 3 March 2008 in the UK and Ireland. Meanwhile, "Something Right", which is an original up-tempo song, was released as the third single in Asia and Europe.^[15] When Westlife announced the release date for the album, The Spice Girls immediately withdrew from the chart battle and delayed their Greatest Hits album release by a week to 12 November 2007. Westlife and the Spice Girls are then engaged in a war of words where each accused the other party of avoiding each other's release. The Spice Girls claimed that their album was to be released on 12 November 2007 and that this has always been the case. However, music retailers have concurred that the Spice Girls' album was initially marked with a 5 November 2007 release date.^[16] Back in November 2000, both bands were caught in a chart battle between Westlife's second studio album "Coast to Coast" and Spice Girls' third studio album "Forever". In the battle, Westlife sold 163 000 more records than the Spice Girls in the first week of release. Speculations then began to surface that Westlife might consider changing the release date of their album back to 12 November 2007 to go head on with the Spice Girls.^[17] A Westlife insider told The Mirror "It's war and they're not getting away that easily. They can run but they can't hide"^[18] which supports the speculation. However, the band made no further changes to the release date.

An accompanying DVD was released on the week of the album's release. It featured backstage footage of the group, Up Close and Personal segments, and the music videos of "Home, You Raise Me Up, When You Tell Me That You Love Me, Amazing and The Rose". The DVD was available exclusively at Woolworths.

Track listing

Credits

*Numbers in brackets represents the track number on the album.

Chart performance

Year-end charts

Release history

References