POP PINUPS FAX IT IN
Source: New York Daily
The Backstreet Boys and Ricky Martin repeat winning formulas, with mixed
results.
BY JIM FARBER
So they're shallow. And cloying. And formulaic. And greedy.
Does that make teen idols entirely bad?
The deepest thing about Ricky Martin and the Backstreet Boys may be their
dimples. But that hasn't stopped their records from delivering joys galore.
Martin's last LP housed scores of dippy ditties you just
couldn't get out of your mind, while the Backstreet Boys' previous disc,
"Millennium", included the most hummable melody of 1999 ("I Want
It That Way"). Now both teen acts are back with new albums-if soon enough
to invite suspicion. Since they both toured relentlessly in the last 18 months
following their last releases they must have cut these new records on the fly.
Remarkably, only Martin's album shows some of the wear. The B-Boys have
recorded some of their most appealing work to date. But let's not get carried
away. The new album recycles every formula from their first two, and drips with
more sentimentality than "Patch Adams".
But it's also catchy beyond belief and features the best tunes by any teen act today. In pleasurable melodies (if not the character of their singing), they can be compared to the Carpenters. As singers, the Boys are still interchangable, while Karen Carpenter was one in a million. But as pop balladeers, these guys are in a class of their own. Since their beginnings, the Orlando fivesome has excelled in ballads with a-backbeat. Smartly they let softer tracks dominate this time. On croonable new numbers like "Shape Of My Heart", the group's writers (again led by Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson) craft tunes you can't wait to curl your lips around. The songwriter's Swedish heritage provides the perfect candy wrap for their r&b core. While the same writers toil for all the teen stars, somehow the Boys keep getting the cream.
The writers are not as strong with upbeat tracks. As usual the fast new ones sound like recycled outtakes from Michael Jackson's tragically influenced "Bad" LP. Listeners also will have to stomach the Boys' lust for pie-eyed fantasies about endless love. The fact that two of them (Brian and Kevin) just got married evidently sweetened the group. And of course, they can never resist a song like "Everyone", one of those ghastly "we owe it all to you" songs for their fans, like "Larger Than Life".
Couldn't they keep this stuff in the liner notes?
Of course, by now it's all part of a familiar trade-off. You want the
Backstreet Boys? You'll have to put up with the schmaltz.