Backstreet Boys � Black & Blue
Label: Jive
Release Date: 11/21/00

Tracks
1) The Call
2) Shape Of My Heart
3) Get Another Boyfriend
4) Shining Star
5) I Promise You (With Everything I Am)
6) The Answer To Our Life
7) Everyone
8) More Than That
9) Time
10) Not For Me
11) Yes I Will
12) It's True
13) How Did I Fall In Love With You

When my editor handed me this CD and asked me to review it, I thought he had been smoking crack. It's no secret to frequent visitors to this site that I loathe pop music, especially boybands. Using the word band is a misnomer, because these are not really bands but vocal groups. True there have been worthy artists like the Temptations who were singing groups and didn't play instruments. However, they had Smokey Robinson writing a lot of their hits, which is something that the Backstreet Boys or their cookie cutter counterparts don't have. If they recorded a song like "My Girl" or "Just My Imagination" perhaps I might give them some credit, but so far that hasn't happened, as this album is more of the same thing we were subjected to with Millennium and their self-titled debut. In fact, the music of this group doesn't even measure up to The New Kids on the Block. 

It's no secret why this group is popular; it's marketing baby. Everything from the band member public personalities to the insipid puppy love songs are focus grouped to insure that they elicit the proper response from Jr. High School girls, making them want to spend their parents money on everything from CD's to hamburgers. It's an old formula we've seen time and time again; so far it hasn't failed to rake in the bucks. 

What about the actual music? I did force myself to sit through this entire CD and it did not change my opinion of this group. The songs are corny at best, most of them deal with you guessed it, puppy love. Even the upbeat songs like "The Call" and "Get Another Boyfriend" come across as the ultimate in cheese. Aside from the computer-generated accompaniment, something that isn't anything new to pop music, the vocals are over processed and produced. The overuse of studio effects on the vocals is easily apparent to anyone who has ever been in a recording studio. Any sound engineer will tell you that with the proper equipment you can make even Roseanne sound good. 

But the music is catchy with lots of hooks! That is true and it was produced to be that way because this "music" is really nothing more than commercial jingles designed to sell product. The product is the boys, not the music. It's ok for what it is, but I wouldn't go as far as to call it legitimate music. Think of it as three minute jingles pushing the product called the Backstreet Boys and you will have this group nailed. As far as taking them serious as artists, I still contend that to do so is an insult to serious musicians out there trying to make honest music. 
 

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