Greatest Hits (Westlife album)
| Greatest Hits | ||||
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| Greatest hits album by Westlife | ||||
| Released | 18 November 2011 | |||
| Genre | Pop, pop rock, teen pop | |||
| Label | RCA, Sony | |||
| Producer | John Shanks, Steve Mac, Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, David Foster, Pete Waterman, Steve Robson, TTW, Rami Yacoub, Quiz & Larossi, Carl Falk, Arnthor Birgisson | |||
| Westlife chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Greatest Hits | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| BBC Music | (mixed) |
| Digital Spy |   |
| Entertainment Focus | |
| Daily Express | |
| Female First | (positive) |
| Rovi Music |  |
| Star Magazine | |
| Trash Lounge | |
| Allmusic | |
Greatest Hits is the second greatest hits album and final release by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released on 18 November 2011 by RCA Records and Sony Music. Greatest Hits is the group's second greatest hits album following Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1 (2002). The album is the group's first album not under Syco Music and not under the tutelage of Simon Cowell, having left Syco and Cowell in March 2011. The greatest hits album contains numerous singles that span throughout the band's career, as well as four new songs produced by John Shanks, which includes the lead single "Lighthouse", which was released on 14 November 2011. The compilation was released in two different formats, a standard edition containing the album's eighteen tracks, and a deluxe edition featuring numerous other singles of the band's discography, as well as a DVD containing almost all of the band's music videos.
Upon the album's release, Greatest Hits received mixed reviews from music critics, with some reviewers praising the compilation's structure, while others disliked the group's musical style implemented in the songs. The compilation reached #4 in the UK Albums Chart; it is the lowest peaking position for a Westlife album. The album debuted at the #1 position on the Irish Albums Chart, while it peaked within the top forty of New Zealand and Norway.
It was recorded from May - September 2011 with the band's Gravity producer Shanks and new producers like Dan Radclyffe and Boxsta Martin. On 5 September 2011, it was confirmed the album to be simply titled as Greatest Hits. The group said, "It’s almost hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for as long as we have. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved and are looking forward to releasing our Greatest Hits as a special thank you to our fans who have supported us throughout our career." Egan added: "Our greatest hits album is out soon, and we’ve worked so hard to put together four or five new tracks for the album. The new songs are great and we’re all really pleased with them. We think the fans will love them too." Feehily added, "It's a very different Westlife", "We are putting the finishing touches to our new songs" Bryne explained: "I'm doing a bit of everything to be honest, We just came back from the UK, we were there for four days. We were in the studio for four or five weeks but we finished there about a month ago." In China Daily, they said that Westlife has taken their music and career to another level. “‘We’re all at least 30 years of age. We could all go home now and we’d be all right for the rest of our lives,’ Feehily says. “So, if we are going to make more records, we want to do it well. Otherwise we don’t want to do it at all.”
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