Review Summary: The swan song of pop music's most consequential era
The Backstreet Boys were among the most seminal pop acts of the late 90s and early 2000s. When
Total Request Live premiered in September 1998, it would not be until the following March that a #1 video
didn't belong to the Backstreet Boys or their frosted tipped rivals NSYNC. Both groups were at the epicenter of a phenomenon that changed pop music forever. Before social media, streaming services and dopamine-inducing button clicks, you tuned into MTV after school to get a fix of your favorite artist. Like most things, however, this era was fleeting. By 2002, NSYNC had broken up and Backstreet was in the midst of a two-year hiatus. After label turmoil and group infighting nearly led to them recording an album without Nick Carter, the Boys re-entered the studio in 2004 and got to work on what would turn out to be their best album.
Never Gone was the last album the band released before Kevin Richardson departed from the group; he would spend six years away before returning. It also remains their most recent album to go platinum and lead single "Incomplete" marked their final appearance on
TRL, the same top 10 countdown they had previously dominated. Whereas some of the band's early hits ala "I Want It That Way" became transcendent classics, this album plays like a farewell to a bygone era. Even the most energetic moments carry an understated solemnity, as if to suggest that the Backstreet Boys knew their reign of the music world had come to an end. It certainly marked a transition in their sound. They shied away from the bubbly teen pop that made them legends and opted for adult contemporary pop rock with live instruments. It also sees all five members at the absolute peak of their vocal powers.
AJ McLean takes the lead on "Incomplete", which is a perfect fit for his sultry and versatile voice, but Nick Carter steals the show on that
towering chorus. Backed by Howie Dorough's harmonies, Carter piles on the grit and timber needed to give this track the desperate emotion it's calling for. "I tried to go on like I never knew you," he emphatically proclaims over sweeping synths and violins. "Just Want You To Know" is a straight up rock song. It's an infectious banger, as Carter takes the reins on this one. McLean and Brian Littrell trade intimately pleading verses on "I Still...", where the Boys make an impassioned plea to a former flame who won't return. Kevin Richardson's belt on the song's bridge is f*cking awesome, and serves to reiterate how each member is almost equally essential to the group's identity. Look to the soaring harmonies on "Climbing the Walls" as another example, where everyone pitches in and elevates a track already brimming with orchestral grandeur to even bigger heights.
Elsewhere on the album you'll find more criminally underappreciated moments like "Safest Place to Hide", where Littrell's consummate vocals go hand in hand with passages that weave a tale of a love on fire that has stood the test of time. "It seems like yesterday when I said 'I do.' And after all this time, my heart still burns for you," he thankfully exhales. The closing title track, co-written by Richardson, is a tribute to his late father (and Littrell's uncle) Jerald. Appropriately placed as the bookend moment on the album, its sense of finality is only crystallized knowing that Backstreet's commercial relevance really doesn't know a day beyond this. They've flared back up in recent years, but
Never Gone was, for all intents and purposes, the last time the Backstreet Boys would be at the vanguard of mainstream consciousness.
Never Gone is the last snapshot in a picture album chronicling a period in time that will, ironically, never return. After this, Backstreet would be forced to swim against the tide for a few album cycles before finally accepting that they were over the hill. But at the same time, they weren't. Their performances on this album are the best they ever put to record, which only underscores their unwavering love for music and connection with their fans and listeners. That same zeal has allowed them to trek forward to the present day, where they're currently celebrating
thirty years together. And even if this had to be it for the era of the bubblegum pop boy band craze, at least we got one last entertaining album, and one that swells with enough majesty worthy of this legendary group.
Never Gone is the pinnacle of the greatest boy band of all time.
