Backstreet Boys Are Back in Action

02/25/2005 10:58 PM, Reuters
Melinda Newman

All the Backstreet Boys ask is that you give them a fair chance. The quintet is set to return with a new Jive album in June preceded by a single in March.

"That's the first thing we thought about when we started making the record," the group's Howie Dorough says. "That's why we said we weren't going to give ourselves a time limit. We wanted to make sure this album would give us a shot again to be around for the long haul so people will realize that we're not, hopefully, a flash in the pan in their eyes."

If the group's performance of "When I Grow Up to Be a Man" at the recent MusiCares dinner honoring Brian Wilson was any indication, the act is in fine form. In fact, Wilson declared it one of the evening's best performances.

The group is narrowing down the album's final 12 tunes from more than 40 that it cut with many producers including John Shanks, Billy Mann , the Underdogs and Max Martin.

"The music has matured," Dorough says. "It's a little more stripped down, a little more organic. There's not necessarily five-part harmony on everything you hear." One song sure to feature that trademark harmony, however, is their remake of the Eagles' "Best of My Love" -- if it makes the cut.

The group's last studio album, "Black & Blue," came out in November 2000. The project sold 5.4 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan, including a blazing 1.6 million in its first week of release.

Reuters/Billboard