By Request

Performer: Boyzone
Distributor: MSI Music Distribution

Notes: BY REQUEST is an 18-track greatest-hits collection from the Irish pop band Boyzone. The title By Request was chosen from many entries submitted through a Boyzone fan contest. The songs themselves were chosen from Boyzone's three albums with several new ones added for good measure. By Request reminds one of how quickly the group shot to the top and how many hits they achieved in only four years. Every song here will ring a bell with pop listeners from Europe and Asia, though Americans will only recognize one or two if they are lucky. For much of the world, the album nearly plays as a Top 40 soundtrack to the latter half of the '90s. With each album it is clear that the quality in voice, production, and choice of song has increased. Beginning with "Key to My Life" from the first album to the group's anthem "Different Beat" to the exceptional Andrew Lloyd Webber song "No Matter What," the group has remained focused on good old-fashioned "music." They have stripped down to the essentials, using sincere lyrics, simple melodies and no heavy synthetic distractions. Their decision to sound more like a band and less like a pop fabrication is admirable and probably the reason why their fellow Dublin band U2 used them on backup for the song and video "Sweetest Thing" (which does not appear on this album). [The Australian edition is missing the song "So They Told Me"] ~ Peter Fawthrop

Managed by pop impresario Louis Walsh (later a judge on THE X FACTOR, the UK's version of AMERICAN IDOL), Boyzone was Ireland's answer to the swell of boy bands that dominated the late-1990s pop scene. Led by heartthrob lead singer Ronan Keating alongside Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch, Stephen Gately and Mikey Graham, Boyzone had several years' worth of hits including "Key To My Life" and "So Good" before splitting in 2000. Gately made different headlines in 1999 as the first boy band member to come out as gay. Keating went on to a successful solo career in Ireland, while Gately pursued a visible career in musical theater until his sudden death in 2009.

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