If there were ever two red-headed stepchildren of the Backstreet Boys universe? It’s these two albums. Part of me gets it, and part of me doesn’t. So before I go on into my plea, I want to vent for a moment. Every time there’s anything connected to social media or referencing the eras, these two albums get skipped over. It’s like they don’t exist and we only remember them due to some weird Backstreet Mandela Effect. It’s like Kevin never left and they just jumped straight from Never Gone to In A World Like This. When they do get acknowledged? It’s for smaller things and only occasionally, like on the History hoodie over on the Fan Club store (unsponsored comment, that thing is the softest ever and I’m in love with it. Best thing I ordered.) or the fact it does get mentioned as part of their discography in the intro for the DNA tour. But beyond that? That’s about…it.
As someone who has fond memories for those two eras? It’s drives me crazy. It drives a lot of us crazy. It gets skipped over in interviews, podcasts, memes, social media posts, and okay yeah they sing Undone on tour. But overall? It’s as if the Boys like to pretend these albums didn’t happen. Yes I know those were the two Kevin-less albums. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean they don’t have great songs that deserve the time of day. Like, okay we all know that Kevin isn’t a fan of Straight Through My Heart and that’s okay. They all have songs like that. I mean Brian doesn’t like Soldier. But what about If I Knew Then, Bye Bye Love, Masquerade, Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon, Downpour, You Can Let Go, Everything But Mine…I can go on and on. Those songs are good. Too good for the lack of attention they get.
I won’t stand here and say these two albums are perfect.
None of their albums are.
Well, okay the Christmas album is but that is a whole different rant.
But Nick was talking about the fact he’s considered doing a full rerecording of his Now Or Never album with his and I quote, “adult voice” at a soundcheck I attended, when I asked a question. Mind you, I got ridiculously excited about that idea. But it also spawned a new idea now that things have calmed down and my brain is just going a mile a minute with things I want.
So say they decided to pull…a Taylor Swift. Think about it. They create the albums that would’ve happened without Jive records meddling about because let’s be real, that happened a ton during these two eras. And they recorded a lot of songs for Unbreakable and This Is Us. A lot of songs leaked but even the Boys themselves have admitted (by accident usually) that we haven’t gotten all of them. Picture them rerecording the albums, with Kevin, with the songs they wanted included to begin with.
Beautiful image, isn’t it? For example, Kevin’s voice on Unsuspecting Sunday Afternoon, the acapella intro and the actual song. Or a new version of Undone? They rearrange the songs, shift some solos and even the melodies and give us a truly “reimagined” This Is Us and Unbrekable. Now, I don’t know how easy this would be. I have no idea about the legalities, the ins and outs, because unlike Taylor Swift, they don’t have sole ownership of their songs. But it’s possible, right?
I know I’d buy that in a heartbeat. Pair this up with a tour to boot, to celebrate the two most ignored eras of their career so far? Sold. Sold on so many levels. And like I know there’s other things going on. I know they had a meeting in September about what’s to come and Nick and AJ are teasing big things (whatever that means, I asked for a hint from Nick at a soundcheck in New Jersey and he said no, ha.). I know there’s a want for new music too. Obviously.
I’m simply suggesting this as, well, an in-between project. It doesn’t have to be right now. I just want to put this on the brain. Our brains, their brains, so that maybe it pops up as a thought later.
I mean, hey, you can’t blame a fangirl for trying.
The Dark Side 