A tradition had developed whereby every November since they first broke onto the scene,
Westlife, one of the most successful boy bands ever, would release a new album and it would stay on the market, selling well though December, the most profitable time of year. Indeed, they sold well enough in most years to have the number one album, an achievement they had accomplished in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005, only missing out in 2004 with the
Allow Us to Be Frank swing album, which had probably been too similar to the
Robbie Williams Swing When You're Winning project, even for them. They had also missed out with their first album,
Westlife, in their breakthrough year of 1999. Now in 2006,
Westlife released their seventh album, playing it safe again with a collection of standard well-known love songs and ballads (they rarely did anything else) called
The Love Album, which went on to become their fifth number one. There was a swagger and a confidence about
Westlife, and also their record company, regarding the timing of their releases. Nobody was going to stand in their way. Having beaten off
the Spice Girls' comeback album in 2000 for first-week sales, they were not frightened of any other label or artist stopping them from easily achieving a number one. In 2006, the competition was easily the strongest yet with albums by
Oasis,
U2, and even
the Beatles, all released in the same week. No problem. With a fan base as loyal as theirs, they knew they had the number one position sewn up, and so it proved to be the case, admittedly only for one week, when the group that preceded them in teenage girls hearts,
Take That, took over at the top with
Beautiful World, their comeback masterpiece.