Music

“I Need You Tonight” had first been performed by contestant Andrew Fromm during Ed McMahon’s 1995 final season of Star Search. The New Jersey singer-songwriter told Billboard he had no idea who the Backstreet Boys were when Jive Records’ senior director asked to borrow the track for Millennium. And he wouldn’t have been much the wiser after hearing their take on his unashamed slushfest, either. For one thing, the boyband’s signature harmonies have been pushed to the background in favor of a nasal Nick Carter lead vocal. And while the BSB typically excelled at romantic ballads, Mutt Lange’s treacly production leans into every grab-the-air cliche. Listen here.

“Back To Your Heart” was co-written by Jason Blume, the author of music industry guidebook Six Steps to Songwriting Success. Another of the schmaltzy ballads which leaves Millennium rather front-loaded, this isn’t exactly a standout. With country music hitmaker Gary Baker – the man behind All-4-One’s inescapable “I Swear” and Lonestar’s “I’m Already There” – also on board, “Back To Your Heart” should have been a surefire wedding dance favorite. But the only success it achieved was bringing its lyrical inspirations, Kevin Richardson and his future wife, back together. Listen here.

“Spanish Eyes” shares a title with a 1999 song from Ricky Martin’s English-language debut, but musically, it’s more likely to be confused with Westlife’s sole Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Swear It Again,” which hit No. 20 in 2000. A tale of a blossoming multicultural romance, this flamenco-tinged ballad was written by Fromm and hitmaking cousin Sandy Linzer with Martin in mind. But even the Latin pop Casanova would have trouble selling sentiments such as “When I look into your Spanish eyes/I know the reason why I am alive.” Listen here.

Backstreet Boys are nothing if not gracious. After opening Millennium with a tribute to their adoring public, the quintet then wraps it up with an ode to the women who raised them. As with Spice Girls’ similar Mother’s Day anthem two years earlier, “The Perfect Son” is essentially a Hallmark greeting card in musical form (“I want to thank you for what you’ve done/In hopes I can give back to you/Be the perfect son”). But the addition of a gospel choir – recorded at co-writer Littrell’s old Lexington high school – makes this a little more noteworthy than the rest of the album’s sickly-sweet ballads. Listen here.

Just like closest rivals *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys occasionally ventured outside their Swedish hit factory comfort zone to flirt with the world of R&B (see the Rodney Jerkins-produced “Shining Star” on Black & Blue or the PM Dawn cover “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” on Backstreet’s Back). “No One Else Comes Close” originally appeared on All That I Am, the 1998 sophomore from one of the genre’s smoothest crooners, Joe. And while this carbon copy lacks the soulfulness of the original, the group’s five-part harmonies at least bring something new to the table. Listen here.

Sadly, not a cover version of Gloria Estefan’s same-name power ballad, “Don’t Wanna Lose You Now” is Backstreet Boys firmly on autopilot. Rami Yacoub, who co-produced the track with Martin, even freely admits that he deliberately tried to replicate the snare drum sound of Millennium’s biggest hit. Of course, Backstreet Boys going through the motions is still more listenable than most boy bands firing on all cylinders. And while this midtempo track is unlikely to be many fans’ favorite, it’s a perfectly serviceable breather in-between two of the record’s more dancefloor-friendly stompers. Listen here.

“Now I know why I was born/You feel my feelings one by one.” “It’s Gotta Be You” doesn’t strike lyrical gold, but musically, this is the hit factory in good form, with Yacoub and Martin hitting pretty much every button on their bank of bombastic sounds. Gurgling vocal modulations? Check. Orchestral synth stabs? Snare patterns which sound like they’re about to burst out the speaker? Check. They’re all here. Listen here.

“You hit me faster than a shark attack/You saw my picture/On the Backstreet’s Back, alright.” “Don’t Want You Back” boasts one of the boy band’s most attention-grabbing, and super meta, opening lines. It also finds the five-piece abandoning their usual romanticism for something a little more caustic, almost doubling up as a riposte to *NSYNC’s far more pleading breakthrough hit “I Want You Back.” As with their Joe cover, the best of the album’s non-singles dips its toes into R&B waters, this time by adopting the same harpsichord sound that would define hits by Destiny’s Child, TLC, et al. Listen here.

Having already shifted millions of copies of Millennium, Backstreet Boys could afford to give their fans a little creative control by asking them to choose its fourth and final single. Of course, once Nick revealed that he’d voted for “The One” himself, the TRL poll result was a foregone conclusion. But it proved to be the right choice, nevertheless. Far and away the standout from the album’s schmaltzy ballad-heavy second half, this Littrell co-write neatly bridges the gap between their sentimental love songs and their precision-tooled pop bangers. Listen here.

The melodramatic balladry of “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely” is something of an outlier in the Backstreet Boys catalog. It’s their only single to give Kevin a prominent lead vocal. It’s accompanied by their darkest, and most devastating, promo, one which alludes to all the heartache and hardships the group’s members had recently experienced. And while BSB’s lyrics are usually to the point, they’re almost willfully obfuscating here (“Life goes on as it never ends/Eyes of stone observe the trends”). Despite picking up a Grammy nod and equaling the No. 6 position of Millennium’s lead single, this Latin-tinged effort feels underrated compared to their more easygoing ballads. Listen here.

From Joseph Kahn’s Blade Runner-meets-Star Wars epic (still one of the costliest videos of all time) to the Cheiron team’s unashamedly bombastic production, every aspect of Millennium’s aptly titled opener is indeed larger than life. A thank-you note to the teenyboppers who’d stuck by them since their “big in Germany” days, it ramps up everything that made “We’ve Got It Goin’ On” and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” such boy band bangers, and then ramps it up some more. Don’t be fooled by its No. 25 chart position. “Larger Than Life” is late ‘90s pop at its maximalist best. Listen here.

It’s still unclear what the “it” or the “that” in the nonsensical title refers to, but semantics aside, Millennium’s lead single remains a masterclass in boy band balladry. “I Want It That Way” boasts an earworm chorus which feels like it’s always been part of pop’s fabric, multi-layered harmonies (the “you are” crescendo is particularly glorious) that would put any classic vocal troupe to shame and an iconic airport-based video that perfectly encapsulates the mania the group inspired. Nominated for both song and record of the year Grammys, this song topped Billboard’s 100 Greatest Boy Band Songs of All Time list and deservedly remains BSB’s signature tune. Listen here.