Westlife’s new single, What About Now, benefits from a rain-lashed sense of melodrama that — in a Lithuanian Eurovision entry way — isn’t disagreeable. Elsewhere, it’s hard to discern exactly what the group’s Mark Feehily meant when bandying the words “experimenting” and “new direction” about. In spite of the revolving-door cast of producers, a machine-tooled air of efficiency pervades soporific power ballads such as No More Heroes and The Difference, while Shadows sounds like a Leona Lewis offcut. Oh, it is.
(Sony Music; out now)