Shane Filan: You and Me

Always the most likely to pursue a post-Westlife career, Shane Filan’s solo debut certainly has the big name songwriting teams behind it – but his manager Louis Walsh’s dream of pitching him as “the new Michael Bublé” is embarrassingly off the mark.

Filan can obviously sing, but these songs lack both charisma and originality, predictably falling somewhere between the “swoonsome ballads” and “formulaic pop rock” categories.

There are vague references to his financial troubles on Everything's Gonna Be All Right, but the Sligo man generally evades anything controversial or risky, both musically and lyrically.

The 1950s soul-pop of Baby Let's Dance and country-tinged When I Met You are about the best songs here. It could have been a real statement of intent, but instead this humdrum, sanitised album is for fans only.
shanefilan.com

Download: When I Met You, Baby