Backstreet Boys — Never Gone

Backstreet's back, both unfortunately and unnecessarily. At least the band — or the puppet masters behind the band — have realized that they've gone from boys to men and so they've wisely moved from sugary dance-pop to Coldplay-esque adult contemporary. Yet their harmonies are still painful (and painfully Pro-Tooled) and their lyrics are still about innocent love lost and found. "Crawling Back To You" and "Climbing The Walls" takes BSB to their safe place, while the latter tosses in the same dramatic string instruments found on "Incomplete." It's all bland, unoriginal pap that will only appeal to the nostalgia-seekers of the original BSB generation. For everyone else, the album's title is both a warning and a threat.

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