Linda Ronstadt was America's sweetheart of the 1970s, because she was able to combine a pretty face, a pretty voice and a safe personality. Her songs might be full of big notes and high emotions, but they satisfied every predictable expectation of a love ballad or good-time rocker. Mariah Carey is America's sweetheart of the 1990s for the exact same reasons. Music Box topped the charts, yielding number-one singles like "Dreamlover" and "Hero. " The titles, one a hollow Minnie Riperton knock-off and the other a stiff Barbra Streisand imitation, are tip-offs to Carey's reliance on untethered fantasy (she's the fantasizer in the lyrics and the fantasy object in the videos). These songs, co-written and co-produced like most of the album by Walter Anasieff and Carey herself, are constructed to show off her dizzying soprano, not to provide an original approach to a well-worn subject. Even when she gets a strong ballad to sing, like her current singles-Babyface's "Never Forget You" or Badfinger/Nilsson's "Without You"-she overdoes the self-pity bit so much that the song loses its dramatic tension. -Geoffrey Himes.

At the time of Coast To Coast's release, Westlife could do no wrong. With a staggering record of every one of their seven singles hitting the top spot of the British charts, they were really at the peak of their game. Within a week of this, their second album's release, their cultural forefathers Boyzone announced it was game over, leaving their most successful member Ronan Keating balancing his solo career and his job as Westlife's manager, aided and abetted by Louis Walsh, the man who made Boyzone and who was now firmly focused on his five new Irish wonder boys,. Together they have come up with a winning formula-good looks, ballads and gentle pop-and they rigidly stick to it. After all if it ain't broke don't fix it-look what happened to the Spice Girls, swept aside thanks to a combination of a radical change of direction combined with Westlife power. As such, the album itself is hardly a challenging affair, in fact the only things that really jump out and grab you are the aberration that was their duet with Mariah Carey on "Against All Odds" and their butchering of Abba's "I Have A Dream"-taking the lush harmonies of the original and turning them into the aural equivalent of wallpaper paste. However, it isn't all totally bland, there are moments where the harmonies shine through and the pop sensibilities come to the fore, such as "My Love", "When You're Looking Like That" and "Dreams Come True", in fact anything that is remotely up-tempo and a break from the relentless wishy washy nondescript ballads. This is the sound of Westlife at the peak of their career-the only trouble is, with their phenomenal track record and the wonderful fickleness of the British pop charts, the only way from here is down. -Helen Marquis.

Three years after the scattered Embrya, new-soul prodigy Maxwell returns with Now, his most fully realised disc yet. While not as ambitious as D'Angelo or just plain flippin'-off-the-wall as Macy Gray, the singer-songwriter does claim a stance: acoustic-guitar-based, near-tone poems ("Sympton Unknown") and Kate Bush covers ("This Woman's Work") are hardly the stuff of your average pop-R&B love-man. Maxwell's lush thickets of overdubbed vocals could stand as a fine listen on their own; the varied textures of the instrumental tracks make the flow that much more inviting. A steel guitar subtly fires "W/As My Girl", while a rock-influenced beat gives "Temporary Nite" a groove both choppy and slippery. Now's unity of feel and often pensive tone bring it a cohesive air. Even the potentially throwaway last track, "Now/At the Party", works as more than just an exercise in 70s-party groove. If the many brokenhearted plaints here were telling a story, it would provide a suitably happy ending. -Rickey Wright.

Taken from the opening night of Kylie Minogue's rescheduled 'Showgirl' tour, Showgirl Homecoming is, to all intents and purposes, a live (and slightly updated version) of 2004's Great Hits collection, Ultimate Kylie. This being her first show since successfully battling cancer, Kylie of course pulls out all the stops to make the Sydney date - and the rest of the tour of course - a formidable comeback statement. The 25 tracks here pretty much cover all the key points in Kylie's career - good as well as bad: "Better The Devil You Know", "Spinning Around", "I Believe In You", "Locomotion", "I Should Be So Lucky", "Hand On Your Heart", "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", "Kids" (with a guest appearance from Bono), are just some of the many gems included. It's true that the earlier material (especially from the Stock Aitken & Waterman days) sounds horribly dated even when performed live, but Kylie manages to glide through it all with the kind of sass and style you'd expect from a reborn 21st Century Queen Of Pop. Welcome back Kylie. -Danny McKenna.