Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1

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Released
  
11 November 2002

Unbreakable The Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (2002)
  
Turnaround (2003)

Release date
  
11 November 2002

Language
  
English

Artist
  
Westlife

Genres
  
Pop music, Teen pop

Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb9

Recorded
  
1998-2002; Rokstone Studios London Cheiron Studios, Stockholm, Sweden PWL Studios, London Windmill Lane Studios Ireland Olympic Studios, London

Length
  
77:56 (International/European Version) 74:31 (UK version)

Label
  
Sony BMG Music Entertainment

Similar
  
Westlife albums, Pop music albums

Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1 is the first greatest hits album by Irish boy band Westlife. The album was released on 11 November 2002. The album consists of all of the group's past singles, along with six brand new songs. Hit single "Flying Without Wings" was re-recorded as a duet with Korean superstar BoA and Mexican singer Cristian Castro, and each respective duet was included on the Asian and Spanish versions of the album respectively. The first single released from the album was "Unbreakable", a UK number-one single. The second single, the double A-side "Tonight / Miss You Nights" peaked at number three in the UK.

Contents

Unbreakable peaked at number one in the UK and at number 66 in Australia and sold close to 1.4 million copies in the UK alone. It is also the band's longest charting album. The album was the ninth best-selling album of 2002 in the UK. It managed to re-enter the year-end albums chart of 2007 at number 107. In October 2008, IFPI announced that the album was certified 2x Platinum, exceeding two million sales in Europe. On the year-end album charts of 2008, the album re-entered at number 79 with 191,000 copies sold within the year. The album spent 55 weeks on the UK Top 100 Albums chart.

In 2008, the album was re-issued in an exclusive two disc edition, entitled "Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits - 2008 NZ Tour Edition". The package featured the album, with the same track listing, plus the "Live At Wembley" 2006 concert DVD. It peaked at #1 on the albums chart there, and achieved 2x Platinum status, with more than 30,000 copies sold. The album finished at #19 on the 2008 New Zealand Year-end charts.

Critical reception

BBC Music said: "They know how to ham it up for the ladies and are masters of the sentimental power..." Yahoo Music gave saying: With 11 number ones so far, it's good to see how they all stand up next to each other. Sure, 'Flying Without Wings' is a talent show staple, 'My Love' is great in a-bit-like-'Chicago' kinda way, and even 'If I Let You Go' is eminently more memorable than their debut 'Swear It Again', 'Fool Again' or 'Bop Bop Baby'. In fact, take away the obvious can't-fail covers of 'I Have A Dream', 'Uptown Girl', and make the boys look slightly uglier, and Westlife would have been lucky to get anywhere near the top ten with some of these tunes. A special mention must go out to the sadism of 'Against All Odds' though: Westlife + Mariah Carey + A Phil Collins song = pure evil, anyone? You get a taster of their new direction with the six (Six!) bonus new tracks, including the title track and new smash 'Unbreakable' and a version of Sir Clifford's 'Miss You Nights', which is this year's Christmas single. Hurrah, eh? Of the rest, it's a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Westlife have certainly found their niche in pop, and by statistics alone look like becoming one of the all-time greats. It's just a shame the actual musical legacy displayed here is so wet and uninspiring.

Track listing

Additional Bonus Disc (available at Woolworths via a Daily Mirror promotion)
  1. "World Of Our Own" (US Mix) - 3:30
  2. "More Than Words" - 3:58
  3. "Forever" - 5:05
  4. "You Don't Know" - 4:12
  5. "Interview With Westlife" - 5:00

Video album

  1. "Swear It Again"
  2. "If I Let You Go"
  3. "Flying Without Wings"
  4. "Seasons In The Sun"
  5. "I Have A Dream"
  6. "Fool Again"
  7. "My Love"
  8. "What Makes A Man"
  9. "Uptown Girl"
  10. "I Lay My Love On You"
  11. "When You're Looking Like That"
  12. "Queen Of My Heart"
  13. "Angel"
  14. "World Of Our Own" (US Version)
  15. "World Of Our Own"
  16. "Bop Bop Baby"
  17. "Unbreakable"
  18. "Behind The Scenes Documentary"
  19. "Before They Were Famous..."
  20. "Swear It Again" (US Version)

Songs

1Swear It Again (radio edit)4:08
2If I Let You Go (radio edit)3:41
3Flying Without Wings3:36

References

Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1 Wikipedia
(Text) CC BY-SA