I always get made fun of like a bitch for listening to this kind of music, but it's worth a shot to have a discussion on it anyway. What do you all think about it? I thought it was a MAJOR let down. Never Gone is totally genius. Incomplete is very similar to Inconsolable. I love both of them (even though Incomplete's chorus is much better), but Never Gone offered so much more as a CD. Just about every song had a great beat and sweet vocals, plus it was very catchy. The musical variety was great. Just Want You To Know, Crawling Back to You, Siberia, Climbing the Walls (w/Nick on guitar!) and more were just totally sweet. It's one of my favorite CDs ever. I'll listen to it any day - it's REALLY good. So I get Unbreakable, expecting a masterpiece and I was heavily let down. The beats are so much more....fake in my opinion. Never Gone had acoustic guitar, piano, keyboard, all kinds of neat stuff. Everything But Mine starts off with a really technoish beat. Here, I'll just review every track: 1. Intro - First time we've had an intro from BSB. The vocals are great and prove they can function without Kevin. They go back to their roots with the intro and it's great. It's not long enough but for an intro it's a 10/10. 2. Everything But Mine - Beat is too 'techoish'. Brian's vocals are not that great, Nick is great. The chorus is pretty catchy and I like it, but the rest of the song is just...blah. 6/10 3. Inconsolable - The first single! The piano is great and it reminds me a lot of Incomplete. The vocals are VERY good. Nick and Brian starting it off is great. However, the chorus is weak. Great bridge though that makes up for it. Great song. 9/10 4. Something That I Already Know - AJ singing on Poster Girl on Never Gone was amazing, but AJ and Brian trying to tackle this one just doesn't work. I don't like the beat, the chorus is one of the worst they've ever done (in my opinion). The bridge is good, it's one of the best on the CD. It seems every song has a good part but something else totally sucks. They need to match them up and get a really good song here. 7/10 5. Helpless When She Smiles - I heard this one way before the album leaked and I fell in love with it. AJ rules on this song. This song is actually a cover. Anyway, the chorus is great. This is possibly the best song on the CD. 10/10 6. Any Other Way - I heard a clip for this one before and was let down. I couldn't wait to hear the full thing because I hoped it'd be better. Nick is pretty bad on this one. The beat is just down right weird and the chorus is bad. 4/10, only for creativity. 7. One In A Million - It's like they tried to take the 'Don't Want You Back' beat, remake it, and make a slower song. The beat is bad and the vocals are really weird for the beat, but I kinda like the vocals. The 'fraps' line is great, and the line by AJ at 0:32 sounds very familiar from BSB and I like it. The chorus is GREAT. Great bridge. Once again BSB has something going for them but the beat in the intro and verses could have been so much better. 6/10. 8. Panic - The vocal samples over the intro aren't that good. They sample acoustic guitar going into the beat too. Brian sounds good on this song but the chorus just doesn't work and I don't like this song at all. Possibly the worst song on the CD. 2/10. 9. You Can Let Go - Finally! Here we go! Great piano and some clapping to start it off - AJ is great! The chorus is great, I love this song. This could have been on Never Gone. Great song! 9/10. 10. Trouble Is - This song sounds too 'country'. This is not the good ole BSB we once knew. Howie's voice sure has deepened, wow. I don't like him on the 1st verse at all. The chorus is 'ok'. I might grow on this in the future, but now I don't like it. 4/10. 11. Treat Me Right - I hated the weird intro/xylophone intro at first, but then I relistened like 20 times and loved it. It's very weird, but it works for them really well. JC from N Sync produced this song! Funny how BSB/N Sync were in a huge rivalry 10 years ago and now they work together. Great stuff. The buildup to the chorus is too much, but the chorus itself is good. I like this one, but it's still not as good as it could be. I wonder if BSB has lost its touch? Great effects on this one though and the production totally kicks ass. 7/10 12. Love Will Keep You Up All Night - It's a slow song, but Nick and Brian combined one after another really kick so much ass it's unbelievable. I've never been a fan of their really slow songs besides 'Lose It All' and 'I Need You Tonight', but this one is different. The vocals are freaking amazing on this song. The chorus that kicks in fits perfectly. Awesome! 9/10 13. Unmistakable - Weird intro into a great acoustic guitar part that has piano (which shouldn't have that much of an effect on it) over it. The beat comes in and Brian sings over it. This song was over produced. The raw guitar is very nice, and the vocals on the chorus show they can work without Kevin. This songs reminds me a lot of 'Drowning'. It's not that great overall though. 6/10. 14. Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon - I don't know what's up with me and the beats on this CD but we're just not liking each other. The acoustic guitar doesn't work over the piano at all in the intro. Brian sounds alright, and DAMN the chorus is great...no, it's amazing. I really love the chorus a LOT on this one. In fact, it's the best on on the CD as far as I'm concerned. The intro needs to be like the chorus, just raw piano. The vocals work really well on this, but it's overproduced! Too much guitar on it, there needs to be just mainly piano/strings. 5/10. 15. Downpour - The piano is downright awful, it's like the piano on H! Vltg3 that repeats throughout the whole song. I really don't like it, which is sad because the chorus had a lot of potential. Blah. 2/10. 16. In Pieces - Great beat to start it off, Nick has a good vocal piece with the band backing him. Good chorus, but it's just...so different for the band. The 'In Pieces' part is great. They changed the sound for Never Gone and then changed it for this CD, so there's 3 different BSB sounds now. It's not working that well on this song though for some reason. 6/10. 17. Nowhere to Go - Good acoustic guitar to start it off but Nick's vocal part is bad. The band comes in really quickly and I just flat out don't like this song at all. 2/10. Overall comments: The CD was over produced. The raw guitar and piano found on Never Gone is not there anymore, the strings are flat out crazy, and the people producing the CD overdid it way too much. I know BSB is produced like hell but this is just too much. There's too much random stuff going on in each song. I liked some songs though. The main problem was that a song would have a great chorus but an awful beat, or a great beat but an awful chorus. One thing though that has always worked for BSB, that works on this album, and that will always work for BSB is the totally killer Brian and Nick combo on verses. They compliment each other perfectly, and it's awesome to hear them flow from one to the other. There's some good songs, there's some bad songs, but it's not close to Never Gone. I'll keep it though. I still want to see them on tour lol If they only would have paired the good stuff together and maybe redone some of the bad stuff / had less production and more raw material like Never Gone, it would have worked. It'd be interesting to hear what Kevin would have added to this CD. 6/10 unfortunately and all their other CDs to me are either a 9/10 or a 10/10. I've always been a fan and always will be - they're a great band so this won't change my opinion of them at all. The CD was just a let down for me though. Oh well, there will be another! Comments!
Personally, I like Backstreet Boys' Unbreakable quite a bit, contrary to your opinion. It's not as good as Never Gone, and it doesn't come close to Black & Blue, but it's a good album, and it's one of my favorites from this year. I'm glad they were still able to pull off such a good album without Kevin. My favorite song is easily "Something That I Already Know."
I liked it. I agree with Will in that it's definitely not as good as Never Gone, but it has it's merits.
Top 5 songs? Also, I wonder how they're gonna play live without Kevin. I guess they'll sample the Incomplete piano and on the songs like Incomplete and such that have a solo Kevin part, they'll get AJ or someone to sing it? 1. One In A Million 2. Helpless When She Smiles 3. Treat Me Right 4. Inconsolable 5. Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon
Brian can play piano so I see no reason why he wouldn't be the one playing the piano for those songs.