When Boys Come Back, You'll Notice Some Changes

Backstreet's back, all right, but the megaselling boy band plans to re-enter the pop world in low-key fashion — with lower expectations.

The Backstreet Boys — who have sold an industry-wowing 68 million albums — will put out their first album in three years either this year or early next year. That album will be more diverse, with more rock and more hip-hop/urban sounds than on albums past.

And the arena-packing Boys will introduce the album and reintroduce themselves to U.S. audiences with a series of intimate shows at 1,000-seat venues.

''That way you can really see them sing, but there'll be some choreography like The Temptations or the Four Tops. The idea is to reconnect with fans without the flashes and the booms,'' said band manager Johnny Wright, back with the band after being dumped along with famed boy band creator Lou Pearlman several years ago.

Wright was in town with three of the five Boys — Brian Littrell, his cousin Kevin Richardson and A.J. McLean — for Littrell's fund-raiser golf tournament yesterday for his Healthy Heart Club for Kids foundation and for East Academy in east Nashville. Band members Nick Carter and Howie Dorough couldn't make it yesterday.

All three Boys here said the new album would be far more eclectic than the straight pop diet they've been feeding their mostly teen fans since hitting the scene in 1996. Among the collaborators for the new album: R&B group Boyz II Men and Nashville faith-based a cappella group Take 6.

In addition to those R&B and gospel sounds, Littrell calls the group's upcoming single, Climbing the Walls, ''rock-tinged.''

''I call it I Want It That Way on steroids,'' he said.

None of the Boys expect the 1.6 million in sales their last album, Black & Blue, generated in its first week in 2000.

''It's not about how many we sell in the first week anymore,'' McLean said. ''It's about longevity.''

Tentative plans now call for the Boys to tour 3,000-seat venues in England in the fall before hitting stadiums in China and arenas in Japan. Then the Boys return to the states to play smaller venues before hitting U.S. arenas again in either February or March.

Meanwhile, despite swirling rumors about BSB breaking up, Richardson said that was never even considered.

''We were very burned out,'' he said. ''We weren't enjoying it.

''We needed time to get perspective, to be thankful, be grateful. But once Brian called last year, and he said he talked to the other boys and they're ready, that's when we hooked up and went on Oprah (Winfrey's show). We were all hungry again.''

Back story on Backstreet Boys

Total album sales: 68 million for five albums

Formed: By cousins (and Lexington, Ky., natives) Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell in Orlando, Fla., in the early 1990s. They — with Nick Carter, Howie Dorough and A.J. McLean — released their first self-titled album in Europe and Canada in 1996.

Biggest hits: Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart), As Long as You Love Me, Everybody (Backstreet's Back), I Want It That Way, Larger Than Life, Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely.

Back-to-Backstreet sales: The Boys are the first act to sell more than a million albums in the first week of sales for back-to-back albums, Millennium (1.1 million copies) in 1999 and Black & Blue (1.6 million) in 2000.

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