From the getgo, The Conway Sisters have been perceived as a poor man’s Corrs (There’s four of them and they’ve even got a Sharon) and little on this long overdue debut album dispels those first suspicions. In fact, if you do the blind date test here with, say, ‘No Surprise’ or ‘Reason’, the phrase “Corrs’ tribute band” springs effortlessly to mind.
All of which is a pity, because the Sisters can sing, do neat harmonies, look like pop princesses in waiting and turn out pleasant if vacuous songs, like ‘Miss You’ and ‘Without You’, that probably sound much better around the Conway family hearth than they do in producer Simon Hill’s deathless hands. ‘Holding On’ and the dramatic ‘Find Your Way’ work fine as harmless pop songs but have nothing but the usual clichés to offer, either musically or lyrically. The strings are rather fetching in the ballad ‘Now That It’s Over’ and the guitar intro on ‘Otherside’ promises much before the track moves from the hard shoulder into the very middlest of the road.
So having waited so long we have a right to feel that the Sisters’ “safety first” approach is a bit of a let-down. Let’s hope that being invited to sing at Shane Filan’s wedding isn’t an omen of things to come.