Gravity is the tenth studio album release by the Irish boy band Westlife and it was released on 22 November 2010 in the United Kingdom. John Shanks produced each song, barring the bonus track on the Japanese edition. The album was preceded by the lead single, "Safe", which was released on 14 November 2010.
This is the group's final album under Syco Music. As of November 2011, the album had sold 358,943 copies in the UK.[11]
Background
The recording process for the album started in July 2010; its recording and mixing was finished in October 2010. They recorded the songs in Los Angeles, California, Dublin, Ireland, and London, England.
On 19 July 2010, it was reported by RTÉ that the group would work with producer John Shanks.[12] Westlife told Digital Spy: "We'd wanted to work with him for a long time, but all his loyalty was to Take That and he didn't want to work with another boyband."[13] On 17 September 2010, Egan said that the first single for the album was picked by Cowell and a 30-second snippet was played on X Factor UK.[14] On 1 November 2010, Mark confirmed two cover songs on the album are "Chances" by Athlete and "The Reason" by Hoobastank.
Album name and artwork
On 22 October 2010, the band released a video of the album photo shoot on their official sites.[15] The official photographer of the shoot was Kevin McDaid and Feehily as the creative director.[16]
On 13 October 2010, they announced the album title Gravity and trended worldwide on Twitter as #westlifegravity after the announcement.[17] The album title was suggested by a fan.[18]
"Safe" was the lead single from the album, released on 14 November in the UK. Their debut performance of the track was on the X Factor the day or release. It peaked at No. 10 in its first week consequently making it their lowest charting lead single to date in the UK, as well as their lowest sales for a lead single.[citation needed]
It was later confirmed on 1 February 2011 that there would be no second single for Gravity. Byrne stated that it was Syco's decision.[19] On 14 March 2011, Westlife confirmed that they had left Syco Music and moved to another Sony division, RCA, with the group citing the decision not to release a second single as the reason.[20]
"I Will Reach You" was released as a promotional single on 17 February 2011 in Indonesia, Ireland, and the Philippines.[21]
Track listing
All tracks produced by John Shanks except noted tracks.
^Compiled by the Official Charts Company which includes the full 52 weeks of the year. Not to be confused with the BBC Year To Date chart which only included 51 weeks on chart.
