Backstreet Boys - "Never There"
(Jive, 2005) - * *
I've never been a big fan of the Backstreet Boys or any of their boy band counterparts. But back during their massive heyday, when albums like Millennium sold 1.1 million in a week, I had a sister who was a big boy band fanatic, particularly when it came to N'Sync. And since I often depended on her to drive me around, I never got to pick the jams on the stereo.
Because of that, I gained a deep personal knowledge of all things teen pop. I could respect the fact that N'Sync at least tried to innovate within the narrow bounds of the genre (which seemed to kill Justin Timberlake, who kept struggling to break out of the limited role he could play in a band like that). Then there were bands like Backstreet Boys, comfortable playing their role as the genre's journeymen -- making an occasional comeback whenever the opportunity would create itself, but also able to disappear into the background when times grew tough.
Now they're back with Never Gone which proves I suppose that when you've got the right producers behind you just about anything can sell a quarter million copies in a week. But does that make it good? The verdict's still out on that. It's not awful, but it's hardly inspired. Songs like "Incomplete" push the band's boundaries enough that you might not have immediately known the song was theirs when you first heard it. But upon repeated listens, it becomes a retread of the year's music, attempting to gain ground off what bands like Evanescence and Maroon 5 gained this year. In the end, they fail ... they sound insincere, which makes the song seem contrived.
That's the problem with much of the album. When they were younger (which is a laugh when you consider that the Backstreet Boys were always the oldest "teen" popsters -- even when you use the word "teen" lightly) they at least sounded like they mildly cared about what they were singing. On Never There there's no feeling, just another attempt at a comeback that sounds hollow and cheap. Which disappoints me. I mean, if you're going to make a comeback, shouldn't you have something worth saying?
It's not all bad. There are some bright spots, notably on tracks like "Poster Girl" for which they take an earcatching acoustic melody with a light piano backdrop, add mildly distorted vocals that make the song memorable, and blend it with lyrics that might not even have sunk in yet for them: "The consequences of your actions really are just a game / Your life is just a chain reaction taking you day by day / She says 'nothing's forever in this crazy world.'"
How true. Which may be a good reason for the Backstreet Boys to enjoy the muted initial success they're having with Never Gone because I'll bet once the few good songs on the album oversaturate the radiowaves, they'll end up fading back into the woodwork.
Then they may finally be gone for good.
I've never been a big fan of the Backstreet Boys or any of their boy band counterparts. But back during their massive heyday, when albums like Millennium sold 1.1 million in a week, I had a sister who was a big boy band fanatic, particularly when it came to N'Sync. And since I often depended on her to drive me around, I never got to pick the jams on the stereo.
Because of that, I gained a deep personal knowledge of all things teen pop. I could respect the fact that N'Sync at least tried to innovate within the narrow bounds of the genre (which seemed to kill Justin Timberlake, who kept struggling to break out of the limited role he could play in a band like that). Then there were bands like Backstreet Boys, comfortable playing their role as the genre's journeymen -- making an occasional comeback whenever the opportunity would create itself, but also able to disappear into the background when times grew tough.
Now they're back with Never Gone which proves I suppose that when you've got the right producers behind you just about anything can sell a quarter million copies in a week. But does that make it good? The verdict's still out on that. It's not awful, but it's hardly inspired. Songs like "Incomplete" push the band's boundaries enough that you might not have immediately known the song was theirs when you first heard it. But upon repeated listens, it becomes a retread of the year's music, attempting to gain ground off what bands like Evanescence and Maroon 5 gained this year. In the end, they fail ... they sound insincere, which makes the song seem contrived.
That's the problem with much of the album. When they were younger (which is a laugh when you consider that the Backstreet Boys were always the oldest "teen" popsters -- even when you use the word "teen" lightly) they at least sounded like they mildly cared about what they were singing. On Never There there's no feeling, just another attempt at a comeback that sounds hollow and cheap. Which disappoints me. I mean, if you're going to make a comeback, shouldn't you have something worth saying?
It's not all bad. There are some bright spots, notably on tracks like "Poster Girl" for which they take an earcatching acoustic melody with a light piano backdrop, add mildly distorted vocals that make the song memorable, and blend it with lyrics that might not even have sunk in yet for them: "The consequences of your actions really are just a game / Your life is just a chain reaction taking you day by day / She says 'nothing's forever in this crazy world.'"
How true. Which may be a good reason for the Backstreet Boys to enjoy the muted initial success they're having with Never Gone because I'll bet once the few good songs on the album oversaturate the radiowaves, they'll end up fading back into the woodwork.
Then they may finally be gone for good.
posted by Jonathan Sanders @ 3:42 AM
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