Media Monday #007 – Boyzone

I’ve been listening a lot to Boyzone recently – more specifically their “BZ20” album which was the album released in 2013 to celebrate their 20th anniversary!

In my teens I was a huge Boyzone fan. I can remember when I fell in love. It was after Smash Hits (there’s a blast from the past!) gave you a free songs tape. This tape just so happened to have Boyzone’s “Isn’t It A Wonder” track on it.

Anyway I needless to say I’ve been a fan for years! After one of the members (Stephen Gately – my favourite!) died in 2009 their music has never been the same. He was the second vocalist and had a higher voice than Ronan Keating and they complimented each other perfectly (in my humble opinion). The album released after his death – entitled “Brother” in his honour – was not the same. It was definitely missing something. Clearly Steo’s death had really affected them – evidenced by the “Gave It All Away” video. It always makes me cry! And the most poignant thing for me is that the very first line in the song is “I will learn to live before I die…” and poor Steo died before the song was released.

Another oldie! Me and Stephen Gately when he was acting Joseph in London. #tbt #throwbackthursday #stephengately #boyzone #steo #london

A photo posted by Rebecca (@becsterdotcom) on Aug 20, 2015 at 2:18pm PDT

Like I said, the album wasn’t bad but it didn’t feel right to me. And that’s when I thought that was the end of them. But – thankfully – I was wrong! They released “BZ20” in 2013 and it was brilliant! It didn’t have a trace of Steo no but at least the new Boyz had found their sound.

The standard version of the album has 11 songs on it and can be purchased from any good retailer. You can preview the album on Amazon or iTunes. Tracks on the album are as follows – I have included my star rating although you are free to make your own opinions!

1. Love Will Save The Day – *****
2. Who We Are – *****
3. Everything I Own – ****
4. Centre of Gravity – ****
5. Heaven Is – ***
6. If We Try – ****
7. Nobody Knows – ***
8. Best Night of Our Lives – *****
9. Light Up The Night – *****
10. Rise – ***
11. The Hour Before Christmas – **

(The only reason I give some a 2 star or 3 star rating is because they’re slower songs which currently I’m not into – the others are more upbeat!).

Some specific tracks I wanted to mention were “Light Up The Night” and “Who We Are”. These are songs you can crank up the volume and sing your heart out in the car! That’s what I’ve been doing all week! “Who We Are” has a “we’re going to battle” vibe to it! Great great song.

But in all honesty “Light Up The Night” is my absolute favourite song. It has some great lyrics such as “Before you, I was a song without a lighter held up in the air” and “We light up the night, burn forever young, you know that two stars shine brighter than one”… ahh I’ll just leave you with the music video so you can judge for yourself!

P.S. Boyzone have a new album out now called “Dublin to Detroit” and features cover of some classic Motown tracks.