ronan keating : destination

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Album Reviews

Destination - Released 20th May, 2002


The Daily Mirror 18.05.02
RONAN KEATING IS DITCHING THE CHOIRBOY IMAGE IN THE MORE HONEST, ADULT ALBUM 'DESTINATION'
- AND IT'S SURPRISINGLY GOOD.

Only now, with the group behind him and relationships with his former bandmates non-existent, will Ronan Keating tell the terrible truth about Boyzone. While they were amassing 12 million record sales and becoming the most successful band of the 90s, the Dublin group had a squeaky-clean reputation. Keating claimed to be a good Catholic boy, a virgin saving himself for marriage. The reality was somewhat different.
"One long stag party" is how he describes the time.
"We were a successful band on the road. Of course there were groupies. Let's just say I never went short," he admits, adding: "I've even trashed a good few dressing rooms in my time."

Rock 'n' rollin' Ronan's recent revelations are hardly surprising. Ever since svengali Louis Walsh took him and the rest of Boyzone under his wing, the former shoe shop attendant has had a knack for selling himself. Boyzone may have worked hard collectively but Ronan worked harder, opening nurturing his solo stardom, writing his autobiography, managing Westlife and working as a TV presenter.

With his second solo album, Destination, out this week Keating, now 25, realises it doesn't do any harm to present himself as someone who has lived a little. And, while recent gushing No 1 If Tomorrow Never Comes shows that Ronan's keen to keep a finger in the syrupy middle-of-the-road market, much of the new album is pure pop magic. It is Keating's relationship with writer/producer Gregg Alexander, the man behind ebullient singles Life Is A Rollercoaster and Lovin' Each Day, that makes Destination such an unexpected success. Alexander was the front man and mastermind behind The New Radicals. The group split after one classic album and now Alexander prefers to stay in the background.

It's to Keating's credit that Alexander has discovered a warm and engaging presence beneath his lightweight family-entertainer persona.
Ronan admits his producer is a hard taskmaster, pushing him to the limits of his vocal range, but the results on explosive songs like Come Be My Baby and Blown Away show it has not been in vain.
"It's the first record I've made that feels like a body of work. I want people to see who I really am and I don't think they've seen that in nine years," says the millionaire singer.

But don't expect songs that look at the alcoholic excess that followed the death of Keating's mother from cancer or about Boyzone debauchery. Alexander's songs are infectious, feelgood celebrations, honest reflections of Ronan today - happily married family man, deeply in love with life, his wife and two children Jack and Marie.

Destination isn't perfect, of course. There are songs Alexander didn't write, the Garth Brooks cover (If Tomorrow Never Comes) and the flabby power ballad Joy And Pain that suggests he's too keen to find his way into America using the Daniel O'Donnell method. There are also times when his transatlantic rasp sounds such a facsimile of Alexander's own voice that you long for the producer to put The New Radicals back together.

But for now Ronan can say: "I believe in these songs," and even cynics are convinced.
His Destination is a long way from Boyzone. Calls for a reunion now seem more laughable than ever.

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The Times 17.05.02.

In the hierarchy of pop stars, Ronan Keating has just shuffled up a couple of places. Partly, it’s thanks to his latest single, an inoffensive cover of Garth Brooks’s ballad If Tomorrow Never Comes, which went straight to the top of the charts on Sunday. Keating has had No 1s before, of course — plenty of them if you count his time with Boyzone - but by coming back after a two-year break he’s proved he can step off the pop treadmill and still be successful.

The other reason Keating has risen through the ranks is Pop Idol. While we once thought boybands put together by a slightly suspicious Svengali with a hotline to Swedish songwriters was as low as pop could go, we now have worse to whinge about in the karaoke contest winners Will and Gareth. So despite spending several years in one of the dreariest boybands, Keating suddenly doesn’t seem quite as uncool as he used to.

Naturally, now he’s 25, Keating would like us to forget he was ever in a boyband, not least because it means he was once on a par with Keith Duffy. To that end, he has overhauled his image - natty new haircut, casual designer clothes, videos in which he wanders around looking moody and, gosh, occasionally strums a guitar. He talks about politics, his children and the tax breaks in Ireland, records his albums in America and duets with Elton John (he was one of the guests at John’s Madison Square Garden show). Most importantly, Keating has forged a partnership with Gregg Alexander, the former New Radicals frontman turned expensive songwriter for hire. Alexander is to adult pop what the Neptunes are to R&B. That is, he can come up with a couple of catchy hits before the rest of us get out of bed. His name crops up in credits all over the place - most recently on Kylie’s album - but he seems to like Keating. He’s written most of the songs on Keating’s new album Destination (Polydor), usually with Madonna’s collaborator Rick Nowels.

As expected, the result is a slick mix of nice ballads, nice midtempo tracks with a bit of a dance beat and nice rock numbers. Keating claims that Destination is a big step on from his eponymously titled debut, but if you were one of the four and a half million fans who bought that, you’ll like this. Alexander never strays far from the formula that has been so successful in the past - his songs all have the same whoops, handclaps, female backing vocals, big chord changes before the chorus, buzzy beats and, usually, a guitar solo just before the end. But if familiarity breaks down resistance, Keating is on to another winner.

There are lots of summery songs in the same vein as Life is a Rollercoaster, including the album opener I Love the Way We Do, Love Won’t Work If We Don’t Try and his former single Lovin’ Each Day. There are what Keating calls Don Henley-style driving songs, a few big ballads, a downtempo tune co-written with Paul Brady called The Long Goodbye and a decent cover of Bob Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight, performed as a duet with Lulu. There are 14 tracks - four too many - and nothing that stretches Keating’s pleasant pop voice, but Destination does its job just fine. Another multimillion seller in the bag, then.

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Album review from BBC teletext 18.05.02.
by Michael Osborn

It seems that this fair-haired Irishman has been around for decades. His days with Boyzone seem nothing more than a fragrant memory, and he hosted Eurovision a full five years ago. But Destination is only his second solo album, while the first offering wasn't badly received. Fair enough - why spoil something if it ain't broken? So Ronan won't shatter any musical illusions with this album.
Squeaky-clean straight-laced Keating puts the middle back into middle of the road with this new collection. Of course he's already chalked up a third solo chart-topper with If Tomorrow Never Comes, a ballad straight from the old school. It's sentiments are syrupy sweet, but it miraculously puts a stop to Ronan's characteristic vocal growl - he manages to sound sweet and tender for once. Bound to send many hearts a-flutter.
On My One Thing That's Real, Ronan has a deep, husky interlude - revealing a depth to his voice rarely heard before. He may look moody on the sleeve notes, but Destination finds Ronan largely in cheery mood or basking in the finer side of love and being young. If you liked Life Is A Rollercoater then there's plenty more from where that came from.
Blown away and Pickin' Me Up and sunny slices of pop, constructed to please. It's tempting to dismiss Ronan Keating as musical candyfloss, but he again proves that he has appeal to a wider market than his Boyzone days.
It's all musically polished, with the odd intriguing arrangement. He does well to largely steer clear of drippy ballad territory- appealing to some but nauseating to many. But this is a harmless exercise in mainstream pop marketing which will inevitably secure Ronan more success.

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Amazon.co.uk Review
by David Trueman

If Ronan learnt anything from his first album it was that everything's better with a few great guitar-pop songs thrown in and luckily for him Destination has a fair few to keep things moving along. For fans who fell for the catchy charms of "Rollercoaster" and especially "Lovin Each Day" (featured here again), the opening track "I Love it When We Do" has all the right qualities from a jiggery country-pop groove to the kind of melody that can only be sung with a big cheesy grin on your face. The first single to be lifted from the album, the ballad "If Tomorrow Never Comes" is pleasant and passable enough with a very mature vocal from Ronan and some great harmonies although sadly it's not quite up there with "When You Say Nothing At All", but way better than the average wet slop that can dribble out of a less experienced pop idol. And so that's about it, no misguided directions in style, or the sort of experiments that'd make him cringe in years to come. He's found what he likes and he's doing it well, a complete departure from teen pop, heading more for a David Gray sound so I guess he's found his Destination somewhere in the middle of the road and it's miles away from his former band mates.

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according to BPI:

......Destination has already gone through gold and silver status to reach Platinum status as awarded by the very credible British phongraphic Intstitute!

"destination" is still unreleased , and the date due to release is tomorrow;

monday may 20

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Ronan's Vocals Reach New Destination

Ronan Keating has said that fans who buy his new album, Destination,
will be surprised to hear a different sound in his incredibly
distinctive voice.

Speaking about his inimitable growling vocal technique, which has
graced such hits as Lovin' Each Day, It's The Way You Make Me Feel
and his recent No. 1, If Tomorrow Never Comes, the 25-year old
superstar said: "It's just kind of happened. But I think it's my
voice, more than anything. Put any backing track behind me and I
sound like me, which is nice. However, the one thing people say about
this album is that I do sound different vocally and that's because
I've had more time to actually think about this album and work on the
vocal."

Destination, which features a duet with 60's songstress Lulu, is out
now and looks set to crash into the No. 1 album spot on May 26th.

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Grown up Pop Star charts new Destination

As he continues to put his boyband days behind, Irishman Ronan Keating eyes a more adult course with his latest solo effort as he sets his sights on America.

Irishman Ronan Keating has sold 16 million albums worldwide, married a model, Yvonne, 27, and has two children, Jack, three and Marie, one.

His latest single, If Tomorrow Never Comes, from his second solo album, Destination hit No.1 in Britain this week.

The former Boyzone member is only 25, yet he has left his boyband days far behind.

"We don't even see each other often," he said, of his former associates.

To further distance himself from his boyband days and image, he wars an unsmiling world-weary look on the cover of Destination. His hair is clipped short and neat and his designer suit and matching T-shirt is black. Only his Converse tennis shoes belie his youth.

Keating has also made some mature decisions in putting together his new album. He enlisted Gregg Alexander, the American one-man show once know as The New Radicals, and Rick Nowles, who has fashioned videos for Madonna, to co-write and produce most of Destination's songs.

"I was searching for a certain sound and I fee that I've finally arrived with music that I am comfortable with," Keating said in a telephone interview with Life! from Jakarta on Sunday.

"Compared to Ronan (his first solo album), this album has more ballads, my own material and is more uptempo with that pop rocky-road feel."

If Tomorrow Never Comes is certainly a departure from Keating's previous No. 1 hit, Life is a Rollercoaster.

It is written by American country music superstar Garth Brooks, and Keating had originally wanted to record it with Boyzone, but the opportunity never came up.

Now, this slow-burning pop ballad has become his third No. 1 single since he went solo three years ago.

But despite his success in Britain, Europe and Asia, Keating had yet to conquer America. He signed with the famous William Morris Talent Agency in Los Angeles last year but has no plans to move there.

" I want to raise my children in Ireland. It is a different race in Los Angeles, and Americans still prefer their own domestic bands", he said.

He also said he would steer clear of using his Brad Pitt looks to go into acting even if the opportunity arose.

"My main aim is to concentrate on being a singer," he said.
"I've hosted before and it was confusing being a host and a singer."

Determined not to be pigeon-holed as a spoilt young pop sensation, he went to Chiang Mai, Thailand earlier this year with MTV Asia to shed light on the plight of children living with Aids.

He also started the Ronan Keating Foundation for breast cancer research in Ireland.

"The foundation is very personal to me," he said.
"We set it up after my mother died from the disease as an educational unit to create awareness."

Perhaps the ultimate sign that he has grown up is that when he is not singing, his family comes first. "The bottom line is, I love my wife and my kids"

*Ronan Keating's second solo album, Destination is out in the stores now.

You could be a two-time loser
Everybody used to use and abuse you
But maybe you can turn your life around
'cos miracles do happen
If it's feeling wrong, you can make it right.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
It's just like walking on water
You can move mountains with some faith
Like walking on water
Take your courage out,
Knowing what you can achieve
If you believe it in your heart,
you can walk on water

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What is it about this young man that inspires me so much? Is it because of his trying to be more real with us through his music and faith? It actually is beginning to seem the trend in music these days. Kenny Chesney says his recent album is more the real him too. Sara Evans also. The list is getting endless.

And to think, Garth wants Chris Gaines to get as real as real can be. Looks like he's not going there alone!!

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hi fuzzwuzz

i dont know much about the list u mentioned but i am pretty sure about what mr keating has said :)


i have been listening to his new album and its very different from what he used to do .

its totally new material , and its rare to find like it in the uk .

destination is gonna top the charts tomorrow

hopefully
tomorrow will comes

lol

and yeah , itnc is number 1 for the second week in norway and denmark

and its number 1 in austria .

wow

bye

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destination tops the charts in the uk

as expected


but it also tops the charts in germany


thats really great news .

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destination is at number 2 in norway

and oppened as the highest new entry in the dutch charts at number 20

it sold 122,500 coppies on its first week in the uk to dominate the charts , with triple sales than its nearest "escape" enrique

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the latest news says that

destination is going to be released on june 11 in canada and the usa!!!!!

life is a rollercoaster is going to be released in usa on august 21

and

i love it when we do

is going to be released in canda sometime in august



will keep u informed about the latest updates


bye

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if tomorrow never comes featured in ronan keating's "destination"
dominates the worldpop global chart.

its the best selling single for this week on the global chart.

thats great !!!!


bye

[fuzzwuzz]

You bet it is!!!! :)

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destination at number 8 in denmark
and at number 4 in austria . still havent been released in other counries and hope it will climb in the charts next week .

bye :)

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number 3 in switzerland and number 3 in asia,

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destination hold to number 2 for a second week in norway .
itnc hold to number 2 for this week too in norway . its been five weeks on the norwain charts . three of which were at number 2 and two at number 1 .

destination climbs in the netherlands charts from number 20 last week to number 5.
its released in australia, and next week we will know whats its chart position .
bye

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hi there music fans all over the world .

destination is up to number 2 in the austrian charts. last week at number 4 .
if tomorrow never comes hold at number 2 for the second week in austria.

both the album charts and the single charts are topped by eminem, and followed by ronan !!!
hopefully ronan will be number 1 sometimes later

thats great and i will keep u informed about the latest news

bye :) :)

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destination opens at number 17 in belgium at its first week .
itnc climbs one position there to number 4 .

bye

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hey everyone:)

i wonder where chezza is!!! she was supposed to tell us that destination debuted at number 3 in australia at its first week :)
another thing is that destination is just released today in canada!!!!
i dont know though how will people know about it , since its been ages since ronan has been there and if tomorrow never comes wasnt released there !!!! unlike the rest of the world.yup, it means only an album release without a single!!
is it another record company mistake??

we will soon know the answer, and i will stay in touch with my friends in canada . will keep u informed about the latest news concerning the new ro challenge.

bye :) :)

[fuzzwuzz]

Wow! Are you sure our Destination might just be a real trip around the world? I'm ready!

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u better be ready .
since the ride will be a long and exciting one .
:)

[fuzzwuzz]

In that case, final stop? Eternity!!!