I happened to remark one day as our Advertising Director was walking past, "What is it with me and boy bands lately?" He just looked at me and said "You don't expect me to answer that, do you?" (I had been listening to 98 Degrees' Revelation and realized that I also had two Backstreet Boys albums with me that day.)
I stumbled across Backstreet Boys on YouTube (which has become a great source for me to catch up on popular music of the past ten years or so). The song was "Incomplete," and it was used as a soundtrack for a yaoi AMV (of course). I couldn't find that album (Never Gone), but I happened across Unbreakable when by some odd chance I had money in my pocket.
It's a good, strong collection. There are a few knockouts. The song that first caught my attention on this one was "Any Other Way," a solid pop rocker. That's followed by "One In A Million," which could lead to some dirty dancing, for sure -- it's got that kind of beat. My true love from this group, though, is "Unmistakable" -- pure romance: think of holding your guy in your arms and just floating around the dance floor. It's that kind of song.
Back to the first question: What is it with boy bands? Well, in this case, these guys are good. Forget all the crap about "not playing their own instruments" and all the other jackshit arguments that rock 'n' roll "purists" come up with. That's nothing more than in-group backbiting, as far as I'm concerned, and a sure sign of a) not understanding music very well, b) having your taste canalized by adherence to your peer group, and c) (which I think follows from (b)) a shaky ego.
These guys are singers and dancers and they do both very well. And they're very smart about picking their material, at least on this collection. (I don't know if they write any of their own music. I don't really care. Barbra Streisand doesn't, either.) There's everything here -- humor, melancholy, a sort of wry, after-the-fact acceptance, and a hint of acid. And the musicianship is exemplary. Like I keep sayin', these guys are good. It's a rich, textured sound that makes full use of their voices. It's probably their best album, but don't quote me on that -- I don't know the rest of their output.
The AMV that got me started has been taken down, but here's another with that song and one of my favorite manga/anime characters:
And just for fun, here's one of my latest favorites, which also happens to be by Backstreet Boys (with more of may favorite manga/anime characters):
The only videos I have from this album are slide shows and not all that interesting.
3 comments:
Try and find Never Gone--my personal favorite of all their albums. I prefer the poprock flavor of their last two albums. The new album due out in October is a throwback to their "R&B" roots-ie an attempt to appeal to the younger crowd that worship at the feet of the unholy triumverate of Rap, Hiphop and Urban R&B. A few of the leaked songs so far are pretty good-just not my forte. The Backstreet Boys themselves cowrote One In A Million, Panic, Unsuspected Sunday Afternoon, and Treat Me Right and I think one other on Unmistakable......
Unbreakable...sorry! lol
I actually did eventually get Never Gone because of "Incomplete" -- I also like "Siberia" a lot. I don't, however, think it's as strong a collection as Unbreakable -- even the songs I'm not enthusiastic about on the latter (which are very few) are, when I look at them as objectively as possible, pretty damned good. As it happens, the four you say were co-written by them are among the ones I think come off best on that album. Add in "Helpless When She Smiles," "Any Other Way," and "Unmistakable" and you've got my pick of the best. (Although actually, looking at it again, there's not a song on there that I don't like. Not even Depeche Mode managed to pull that off.)
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