192: GARETH: GOING MY OWN WAY; EXCLUSIVE In Glasgow for The Saturday Show Gates tells us how he fought hard to get the sound he wanted for his new album. Here, we review all 19 tracks on the double CD.

Byline: By RICK FULTON

IN another pop coup for 192, we've got the first track-by-track rundown of Gareth Gates' second album, Go Your Own Way. The album caused a bust-up with Pop Idol's Mr Nasty Simon Cowell -the man who backed runner-up Gareth all the way in the first series.

Gareth, 19, who's in Glasgow today to perform his latest single, Sunshine, on The Saturday Show, revealed: ``Simon wanted the older type of material, but I wanted the new stuff.

``That's why it took a while to get the album out. We had one or two, er, heated meetings.''

Go Your Own Way, released on September 22, is a double CD, split into Day and Night themes.

Night is up-tempo and very George Michael-influenced with stand-out dance tracks including Groove With Me, Absolutely and Club Hoppin'.

Gareth has written seven of the 10 songs -and they are the strongest of the 19 tracks across both CDs.

The Day CD is Cowell's usual blend of bland ballads.

Written mainly by Jorgen Elofsson of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys fame, it has some real duff fodder in ballads such as Listen To My Heart, Lies and It Happens Ever Time.

On the plus side, Say It Isn't So is as good as any power ballad you'll hear all year and the Day CD kicks off with Spirit In The Sky, the UK's biggest selling single this year.

But 19 tracks is a daunting amount for a pop act.

Gareth added: ``I've been working really hard in the studio, so when itcame to putting the album together, I had lots of tracks to choose from.

``The sound I've been working on has moved on from my last album and I ended up loving all the tracks so much that I wanted to include them all.

``The only way to do this without losing some was to have two CDs on my album.

``So now there are 19 tracks which is great, because this way every single one of my favourites are now on there.''

But is it any good? Here's our track by-track assessment: NIGHT CD Sunshine Gareth sounds like George Michael with some Michael Jackson thrown in. The lead single shows a more mature Gareth, funkier sound. 7/10 Groove With Me More George. Think Fast Love -stripped down this will make a great dance track. Single material and cowritten by Gareth. 9/10 Absolutely Another uptempo fast one. Stevie Wonder-influenced music and a tough sounding Gareth fighting for his lady. ``I've got your pictures all over my wall.'' An ode to Jordan perhaps? 7/10 All Cried Out First slow track, co-written by Garethand using sample of Human League's Human. One for teenage girls, but pretty bland. 5/10 Enough Of Me Gareth goes Justin Timberlake. Cowritten by Gareth, it's his feelings about being a Pop Idol. ``Everybody wants a piece of me,'' he sings. 7/10 Go Your Own Way Album'stitle track. Another Gareth co-write. R&B lite. Blue do this much better. 6/10 Just Say Yes More of that twee R&B lite beloved of under-10s, but judging from the first three tracks Gareth, who co-writes, can do better than this. 5/10 Freak My Baby Gareth, co-writing again, back doing George Michael's funky period with lyrics like `Tonight we'll dance like star-crossed lovers.' Top dance track. 7/10 Club Hoppin' No, your Pop Idol prince hasn't turned into a frog. With Erotica-sounding old needle on vinyl effects, scratching and soul trumpets another upbeat dance number, co-written by Gareth. 8/10 Soul Affection A disappointing Rob Davis penned tune which, despite its title, has no soul. 5/10DAYCD Spirit In The Sky Killed the original,

but you can't help but move your feet to the UK's biggest selling single so far this year. 8/10 Say It Isn't So Something he'd have done on Pop Idol and a song which might be used for future wannabes. A slow but powerful ballad. 8/10 Skeletons Another ballad which isn't as successful as Say It Isn't So -too Euro pop. 6/10 Listen To My Heart I don't know what Gareth does during the day, but with yet another Westlife-lite ballad, I'd say he sleeps a lot. 5/10 Foolish Uptempo again and a good time fun tune with a reggae-pop beat. Tom Jones would give a medallion for this. 6/10 Too Soon to Say Goodbye Mexican trumpets, more scratching and a sample of Love Is The Answer to keep it modern, doesn't disguise a Roxettestyle 80s tune which almost sounds like an Abba song. 6/10 Lies Euro pop pap. 5/10 Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now Ballad for any faceless boyband. 5/10 It Happens Every Time `Oh it's magic when we meet baby down on dreamstreet,' says it all about this bland album finisher. Not one to wait for. 5/10