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Backstreet Boys - This Is Us
| Allmusic |
| Since their mid-2000s reunion, the Backstreet Boys have been acting like adults so it's not entirely a surprise that they've decided to shake things up on This Is Us, their third album of the comeback and second since becoming a quartet. Teaming up once again with Max Martin and working with a host of modern hitmakers as RedOne, the group takes a left turn back toward the rhythm-heavy, harmony-laden dance-pop that made their reputation a decade before. Never mind the name of the album -- the group is tellingly quite willing to fade into background, letting the producers do their work, just content to sing the hooks. It's a sharp move in two ways: BSB never had as much on-record charisma as *NSync, their best trait was how they could sell a hook without affect, and that returns here. Of course, it helps that they have a bunch of hooks here, too -- hooks that aren't quite as galvanizing as "I Want It That Way," but easily eclipsing those on the pedestrian Unbreakable, helping the band seem modern without seeming pandering. It's a move that the New Kids on the Block couldn't pull off on their tawdry, sex-obsessed comeback, and it's one that the Backstreets seemed incapable of doing just a few years ago, but on This Is Us, the group sounds great for their age, and they sound like they're at their peak -- which is no guarantee of a hit, but it sure makes for a better album than they've produced in quite a while....full text |
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| Ew |
| This Is Us isn't Backstreet's first album since their days on the boy-band A list. It's not even their first since the departure of Kevin Richardson, who split prior to 2007's snoozy Unbreakable. But the new disc does mark the band's return after a decade to its old teen-pop sound, and considering these guys' combined age, the result is surprisingly unembarrassing. Credit goes in large part to au courant producers such as T-Pain (''She's a Dream''), RedOne (''Straight Through My Heart''), and Max Martin (''Bigger''), the group's original Svengali. The strong vocals certainly don't hurt either...full text |
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| Latimesblogs |
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The best song on Backstreet Boys' new album "This Is Us" is also by far the weirdest and creepiest. "PDA," an ode to the pleasure of public groping, splits the difference between the exhibitionist euphoria of Usher's "Love in This Club" and Andy Samberg's "Saturday Night Live" skit about the travails of overly, um, sensitive men, the title of which cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper. Coming from a band better known for its blow-out Max Martin ballads, it should be an embarrassing bit of lechery -- apparently even the grocery store is an acceptable forum for feelin' on a target's booty. But it's just absurd and un-self-aware enough to enter the pop vocabulary, which unfortunately can't be said for much else on "This Is Us," a competent but very late-adopted pop-trance slurry....full text |
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