Backstreet Boys

The world changed a lot in the time between Backstreet's heyday and the release of their seventh album: *NSync's lead singer became a hip-hop star and 2007's boy bands were sporting eyeliner and calling themselves emo. On 2005's Never Gone, they confronted that change by reinventing themselves as an adult contemporary act. This time, on their first album as a foursome (Kevin sat this one out), they add a little edge to that A/C. "Treat Me Right" encompasses recent trends in R&B and "One in a Million" is downright hip.

There are only four of them now, and two are in their thirties, but they are still Boys, and
they are more thoroughly bland and cheesy than ever. Like the Boys' 2005 comeback
album (Never Gone — surely you haven't forgotten), Unbreakable makes small nods to adult
pop, peppering the processed music with tasteful piano and light guitar riffs and keeping
bright, danceable grooves to a minimum. But the material stinks worse than ever... More >