Backstreet Boys: ‘Unbreakable’
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Backstreet Boys Unbreakable Rating: 1.5/5 |
Oh my god, they’re back again, again. The Backstreet Boys have released their sixth album “Unbreakable.” Unfortunately, this time it was without the infinite talents of Kevin Richardson, who, to his credit, probably came to the conclusion that once you hit the age of 30, you should no longer be part of a group with the word “boy” in the name.
Yet despite their name, the Backstreet Boys do realize that they are getting older and are trying to show their maturity through their music. You won’t find any upbeat, high-energy tracks from their glory days that somehow coupled rock, R&B and Euro-pop with so-bad-they’re-amazing lyrics. Although on The Today Show, Brian Littrell so eloquently stated that BSB “make[s] music for music lovers,” it is evident that the boys are trying to appeal to an older audience.
“Unbreakable” contains mostly piano heavy power ballads, and if you want to know what the album sounds like without actually buying it, you can just listen to their catchy first single, “Inconsolable,” and mess with the tempo.
“Unbreakable” does, however, highlight Brian, Nick, AJ and Howie’s impressive vocals and ability to harmonize. All of the Backstreet Boys have powerful voices, yet they refuse to do anything interesting with them. As someone who would fight for hours about how much better the Backstreet Boys were than N*Sync, I really wanted this album to be good. But the album falls flat after the first song and there is only one standout track.
In “Treat Me Right,” which happens to be co-produced by old boy-band rival J.C. Chasez, the boys finally decided to give the piano a rest and mix up the chord progression. With a beat reminiscent of P. Diddy and Keisha Cole’s “Last Night,” “Treat Me Right” could actually be danced to. This song has more energy than all of the other tracks combined, and sounds like it could be found on their earlier albums.
“Unbreakable” is the musical equivalent to “Saved By The Bell: The College Years.” The original was good: they thought they could keep what they had going. But as we all remember, they could not.
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