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. (One shouldn’t denounce the substance that fuels one’s day. ) It’s no secret to frequent visitors to this site that I loathe pop music, especially boybands.(Well then obviously you shouldn’t bother because you are biased. Jealousy is terrible, terrible thing. Another thing that shocks me - you have frequent vistors to your site? People, what is wrong with you! You go to an anti-music site for music? Dear God help us all...) Using the word band is a misnomer (then you can’t really call them a boy band now can you? It’s just lack of a better word. There is gross misuse in that category anyway. Besides, I don’t know how some people can stand to go to those rock concerts where they sound exactly the same on the CD and they just prance back and forth across the stage with their instruments, or even stay in the middle, the whole friggin’ time. What is up with that? The Backstreet Boys make their music fun by dancing and involving the audience. They make it a personal experience because you come to see your performers live, not to listen to your CD basically.), because these are not really bands but vocal groups. (This coming from a guy who is doing a review on a drug-induced fantasy. The plan: get tons of girls really pissed at the review, then get their addresses and send lots and lots of roses. If the prey is stupid, he should have a new girlfriend by lunch. Oh, and yes that is a better name for the group - who, by the way, isn’t terminally boring and doesn’t play their music the same exact way they would on the album. And yes, the BSB can play instruments. They just don’t want to probably for that reason.) True there have been worthy artists like the Temptations (who the heck is that?) who were singing groups and didn’t play instruments. However, they had Smokey Robinson (Smokey Robinson? Sounds like a crackpot to me)writing a lot of their hits, which is something that the Backstreet Boys or their cookie cutter counterparts (Nsync) don’t have (Ever heard of Max Martin? I’ve heard he’s had a few hits). If they recorded a song like “My Girl”(No comment. Someone is living in the 80’s - really. No one’s buying into that crap anymore) or “Just My Imagination”(Pish posh) 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 this is the same crap I was subjected to when I read the interview with Christina A. flying off her yap. If this isn’t your type of music, you shouldn’t be doing this. Your boss just wanted to ridicule the Backstreet Boys because people like you think that it’s funny to pee people like me off just because the groups we like are so immensely popular that the so-called “bands” get blown backwards on the charts.) and their self-titled debut(actually they’ve realeased four albums, dumb@$$). In fact, the music of this group doesn’t even measure up to The New Kids on the Block. (Ouch. Another 80’s comparison. I am sooo burnt... oooh my crispy butt. We are in the year 2001 get with the program, pal. I think that it’s amusing that you have to go so far back in time to insult the Boys. Funny, this is the kind of stuff they were telling the Beatles. I wonder what I’ll be telling my children a few years from now....?) It’s no secret why this group is popular; it’s marketing baby( and your music preferences don’t make any money do they? Nooo... of course not. They’re just singing for fun and not putting food on the table.). Everything from the band member public personalities (I’ve met Kevin. That kind of kindness is not staged - it is directly proportional to the type of person he is. If anyone had to put up that “act” for so long they would break and go crazy. They are so much nicer than the other boy bands and so real. They truly appreciate their fans) to the insipid puppy love songs (Starts to sing “Get Another Boyfriend” and “The Call”) are focus grouped to insure that they elicit the proper response from Jr. High School girls, (another stereotype. Really, that’s what grade you think I’m in? Thanks for the complement, I guess my beauty products are taking their effects) making them want to spend their parents money (it’s called a job. Speaking of which, you should buy yourself another) on everything from CD’s to hamburgers (I’m a vegetarian). It’s an old formula we’ve seen time and time again; so far it hasn’t failed to rake in the bucks. (How much are you getting paid for this again?) 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. (that’s because you had a negative opinion to start with) The songs are corny at best, (that was original) most of them deal with you guessed it, puppy love (Starts listing: “The Call” “Get Another Boyfriend” “Shape Of My Heart” etc, etc. It depends on how you interpret the songs, d***wad). Even the upbeat songs like “The Call” and “Get Another Boyfriend” come across as the ultimate in cheese. (what make you think that? You know, the proper way to write is to always back opinions up with better statements. I’m seeing that this is a recurring problem for you) Aside from the computer-generated accompaniment, something that isn’t anything new to pop music, (It’s new to the BSB) the vocals are over processed and produced. (Then how come it sounds so kickin’ live? Don’t tell me that it’s taped ‘cause I’ll say “A Cappella” baby.) The overuse of studio effects on the vocals is easily apparent to anyone who has ever been in a recording studio. (And you are obviously not a part of that group) Any sound engineer will tell you that with the proper equipment you can make even Roseanne sound good. (They tried to do that with Nsync and look what happened. Besides, the critics keep on sayin’ that ****and the BSB keep on singing A Cappella, what more is there to do? You’re like music bullies, you keep on picking on the Boys even though there is no reason to do it. It’s insecurity that’s all.)
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. (This is just the style of music. The Boys only pick what they like. You obviously are not a follower and you would see much different if you were. You critics are all the same - just like a broken record. You’re tainting the music business.) The product is the boys, not the music. (So you admit that they’re hot? Actually, it was the music that got me hooked, and don’t try to say otherwise because you’d just plain be lying.) It’s ok for what it is, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call it legitimate music. (Riiigghttt. And the world revolves around your opinion I suppose. ) Think of it as three minute jingles pushing the product called the Backstreet Boys (I think that it is really rude to call somebody as nice and sincere as the BSB a product. In fact, how dare you? It’s not like they are trying to shove themselves in your face 24/7 like Nsync does. Life is a product - your boss buys you and leases you until you find a better job. Then you buy more people and the cycle continues. The music business isn’t any different than any other business in that respect) and you will have this group nailed (I’m afraid it goes deeper than that Lord Falcon). 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. (Give me example. If you say the Rolling Stones I will laugh very, very hard. What is not honest about their music? It’s not oversexed - which in life is a lie in itself. Show Me The Meaning was so brutally sincere - do you have any idea what that was about? It’s very rare that you hear such a magical song with so much depth that applies to something so valid in an artist’s life. Honest music *thwaps head on keyboard* give me a break. All they’re trying to do these days is push sex, sex, sex, and drugs, drugs, drugs. Now if a “serious” musician would be doing that, they’d be making dishonest music. Honesty is not a trend, and neither are the Backstreet Boys. )