For the winners of the Irish version of Popstars, there'll be no more important listening this Christmas than Everybody, the second album from the five British wannabes who started the craze for televised pop auditions in the first place. Despite their chart-topping success, however, Hear'Say are still clearly in a make or break situation, with their future being heavily dependent on the success or otherwise of this album. Luckily for them, the presence of 90s stars Betty Boo and Cathy Dennis as chief songwriters ensures that there's just about enough strong material here to keep them in the singles chart a while longer. If they really want a new lease of life, though, they need to develop a more distinctive identity - Everybody is marred by a handful of leaden disco ballads and the inclusion of a 'new' version of their debut single 'Pure and Simple' suggests that new ideas were in short supply. Louis Walsh take note!
