The Tragedy of “Trouble” – Song Spotlight

Sometimes the Boys create a song.

Then it leaks onto the internet.

And then? Well we all get furious that it never gets released. (And ends up on my Media Archive instead) Hi, my name is Rose and I’m here to rant about how a song called “Trouble” was done so damn dirty. Because this is one of those things I could rant about for years. I’ve played this song in the past around people who aren’t fans and they’ve asked me who it was, and liked the song! This song had an immense amount of potential and lord knows it’s beyond frustrating that…most of the world? They’ll never hear it or know of it’s existence. We’ll never hear the Boys sing this song live, either.

That might just be the biggest tragedy right there.

This post actually got inspired by a road trip I recently took with my friends Allison and Kathleen (*waves*) where we drove out to LA for Nick and AJ’s BackSync Pride event. Obviously we blasted BSB on the way down. I quickly discovered that I knew about the existence of a lot of songs they had no idea existed! Thus reminding me that I probably know way too much about the Backstreet Boys – not that I mind…well not much anyway. There’s a lot of not just “Deep Cuts” as Nick would put it, but unknown leaked songs that so many fans don’t know about! Something that after I move in a few weeks and get settled, might do little IG videos or something now that I’ve been gifted with a ring light streaming kit. (We’ll see, my comfort level in front of a camera is pretty low.)

But for now, I’ll just rant here. It’s what I do.

Sorry. Refocusing.

Now don’t get “Trouble” mixed up with the actual released song “Trouble Is” because they couldn’t be more different. First off, “Trouble Is” was on Unbreakable. This song was a Ne-Yo song sent to the Boys as a demo. They recorded it and man, when I say it’s fire…it’s pure fire. If there was ever a true prequel to “New Love” it would be this song. It’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s the kind of song you find turning up the moment you hear it. When I played this song on the road trip? The MOMENT it finished they both practically yelled “why did they never release this song?!” and to be fair, it’s a good question. My guess? Label politics. This was right before their split from Jive, who were known in the fandom by this point for meddling. They didn’t care about the Boys.

But that’s just a guess.

We’ll always ask ourselves why “Trouble” didn’t make it onto This Is Us but we’ll never know. We might ask ourselves why “PDA” somehow got on there instead. In fact if you get me started I’ll be here all day asking angry questions no one knows the answers to.

What I do know was this song leaked a couple months before the album was released. Somewhat. On LiveDaily fans refused to post this anywhere pubically because they wanted to make sure this got released that badly and didn’t want a leak to mess things up. It stayed “underground” for weeks and weeks, quietly shared but not where casual fans could ever find it. Now we know how this fandom is and it was no different in 2009. When we all agree, there’s usually a damn good reason. This was definitely one of those times. So when one, let’s say…overzealous fan finally posted it to YouTube and started a thread about it, it wasn’t pretty. The poor guy got torn apart because fans worried it endangered the song’s chances. Tragically the decisions had already been made.

The song didn’t make the cut.

I think a lot could’ve been different if it had.

As I write this, I wonder if Kevin ever heard it. I feel like he would have loved to release this. Given his love of “Undone” and “New Love” it’s easy enough to imagine. But it’s hard to say since this was when he wasn’t in the group. But hey, I’m not against the Boys re-recording it, cause maybe then we’d get a live performance someday! A girl can dream…can’t she?

The song itself shows off all the Boys’ strengths. It’s layered with harmonies all throughout the song. Towards the end, it practically becomes an ad-lib vocal competition between Nick, Brian, and AJ. There’s moments where the music drops and all you hear are the Boys singing together. Not to mention the lyrics? They’re adult, they’re mature, they’re sexy. I can’t praise this song enough. I’m a big fan of Ne-Yo cause he’s got some amazing pipes and real soul to his voice. But when you compare the two versions of the song? BSB show themselves as far superior. This should’ve been released.

I mean…

‘Pain is just pleasure with the volume up, I want it louder.’

Need I say more?

It’s frustrating that it never saw the true light of day. Hopefully this post will help others see the beautiful light that is this song. That’s my goal here really with posts like these, educate the “masses” of the fandom so they can enjoy hidden gems like this as much as I do. And hell, maybe make them a little less hidden. Though Boys if any of you see this…perform the song live! Just for fun. Please. We’d pay money to see it. Trust me on this one.

But I guess we should just be grateful the song leaked onto the internet.

Trouble, you deserved so much better.

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Update: Looks like Rochelle agrees!

So AJ, about this song Trouble…

Hey, a girl can still dream!