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New Backstreet Boys album predictable yet fun

First new studio project in six years finds original lineup still intact

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Backstreet Boys, gay news, Washington Blade
The new Backstreet Boys album features trademark harmonies and catchy songs but doesn’t attempt to break any new musical ground. (Image courtesy RCA)

Boy bands are one of pop music’s many curiosities. Often they disappear almost as quickly as they break onto the scene. One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer are recent examples. 

But the stranger phenomenon is the boy bands that manage to stick around for years and sometimes decades. After all, the appeal of groups is often more visual than musical, so what does it mean to mean to be a “boy band” when the members have long outgrown the name? 

Have they evolved into a legit pop music outfit? One might convincingly argue The Beatles were originally a boy band of sorts. Or are they riding the nostalgia train with pleasant if hardly innovative results? On new Backstreet Boys album “DNA,” it’s definitely the latter.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of their third album, “Millenium.” The enormous success of their diamond-selling-and-then-some album cemented the group’s place as pop music icons with the songs such as “I Want It That Way” and “Larger than Life.” And the Backstreet Boys were only one part of the larger late-‘90s boy band phenomenon. NSYNC, Hanson and LFO all experienced major success. Capitalizing on nostalgia, the Backstreet Boys and their forebearers New Kids on the Block even launched a major tour and released a compilation album together in 2011.

Yet “DNA” is more than just the boy band’s eighth studio album. It follows after the biggest break in the group’s history, even longer than the official hiatus following the release of “Black & Blue” (2000). After the group reunited for the 2005 album “Never Gone,” they released music regularly but with limited chart success until 2013.

Breaking a six-year gap at this point in their history makes something of a statement. And it may pay off since we’ve had long enough to miss them (if we were ever inclined to do so). Billboard reports this week early sales figures are strong enough that the group could have the top U.S.-selling album of the week. Yeah, it’s first quarter doldrums so competition isn’t stiff, but that’s still remarkable for a boy band 15 years past its prime. 

Remarkably, the original lineup is intact —  AJ McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Brian Littrell and even Kevin Richardson who left the group in 2006 but was back by 2012. Despite the intrinsic gayness of the boy band concept, none have followed in the steps of NSYNC’s Lance Bass and come out. All the “boys” are now married to women and have kids. 

“DNA” revisits the group’s fundamental musical makeup, which has been a recipe for success: multi-layered harmonies, simple lyrics, uptempo pop beats. The album’s lead single, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” charted on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s a catchy, inoffensive pop tune that sounds not unlike everything else on pop radio. Some of the vocal effects used on the bridge are even reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s “Delicate.” 

Singles “Chances” and “No Place” are mostly inoffensive and lean slightly country, which has the unfortunate side effect of reminding us that the five are not all equally talented singers. Like the lead single, the sounds could be sung by virtually any pop group today with much the same effect.

“Chateau” is one of the more interesting songs on the album and it bucks the pop assimilation trend, sounding more like an outtake from one of their first albums. Perhaps it’s the nostalgic tone of the song (“Baby, I want you back”) that lends itself to this delightful anachronism. Instead of suggesting — as other cuts here seem to — that the Backstreet Boys are on the periphery of today’s pop scene, the song reminds us they used to be front and center. 

There’s a perennial formula for boy bands good looks and catchy, digestible hits. But when they inevitably outgrow both the boyish looks and the music, things can seem either fun and nostalgic or stuck in a time warp. 

If the Backstreet Boys are still touring, then our own maturity seems plausibly deniable. And this is what groups like the Backstreet Boys continue to capitalize on, nearly two decades after they hit their peak.

To say there’s nothing remarkable about the new Backstreet Boys’ album is to miss the point. What’s remarkable is the group’s ability to stick around at all and to continue packing arenas with devoted fans who remember the days when the Backstreet Boys were really on top.

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Music & Concerts

Underdog glorious: a personal remembrance of Jill Sobule

Talented singer, songwriter died in house fire on May 1

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Writer Gregg Shapiro with Jill Sobule in 2000. (Photo courtesy Shapiro)

I’ve always prided myself on being the kind of music consumer who purchased music on impulse. When I stumbled across “Things Here Are Different,” Jill Sobule’s 1990 MCA Records debut album on vinyl in a favorite Chicago record store, I bought it without knowing anything about her. This was at a time when we didn’t have our phones in our pockets to search for information about the artist on the internet. The LP stayed in my collection until, as vinyl was falling out of fashion, I replaced it with a CD a few years later.

Early in my career as an entertainment journalist, I received a promo copy of Jill’s eponymous 1995 Atlantic Records album. That year, Atlantic Records was one of the labels at the forefront of signing and heavily promoting queer artists, including Melissa Ferrick and Extra Fancy, and its roster included the self-titled album by Jill. It was a smart move, as the single “I Kissed A Girl” became a hit on radio and its accompanying video (featuring Fabio!) was in heavy rotation on MTV (when they still played videos).

Unfortunately for Jill, she was a victim of record label missteps. When 1997’s wonderful “Happy Town” failed to repeat the success, Atlantic dumped her. That was Atlantic’s loss, because her next album, the superb “Pink Pearl” contained “Heroes” and “Mexican Wrestler,” two of her most beloved songs. Sadly, Beyond Music, the label that released that album ceased to exist after just a few years. To her credit, the savvy Jill had also started independently releasing music (2004’s “The Folk Years”). That was a smart move because her next major-label release, the brilliant “Underdog Victorious” on Artemis Records, met a similar fate when that label folded.

With her 2009 album “California Years,” Jill launched her own indie label, Pinko Records, on which she would release two more outstanding full-length discs, 2014’s “Dottie’s Charms” (on which she collaborated with some of her favorite writers, including David Hadju, Rick Moody, Mary Jo Salter, and Jonathan Lethem), and 2018’s stunning “Nostalgia Kills.” Jill’s cover of the late Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick” on “Nostalgia Kills” was particularly poignant as she had toured with him as an opening act.

Jill was a road warrior, constantly on tour, and her live shows were something to behold. My first interview with Jill took place at the Double Door in Chicago in early August of 1995, when she was the opening act for legendary punk band X. She had thrown her back out the previous day and was diagnosed with a herniated disc. To be comfortable, she was lying down on a fabulous-‘50s sofa. “I feel like I’m at my shrink’s,” she said to me, “Do you want me to talk about my mother?”

That sense of humor, which permeated and enriched her music, was one of many reasons to love Jill. I was privileged to interview her for seven of her albums. Everything you would want to know about her was right there in her honest lyrics, in which she balanced her distinctive brand of humor with serious subject matter. Drawing on her life experiences in songs such as “Bitter,” “Underachiever,” “One of These Days,” “Freshman,” “Jetpack,” “Nothing To Prove,” “Forbidden Thoughts of Youth,” “Island of Lost Things,” “Where Do I Begin,” “Almost Great,” and “Big Shoes,” made her songs as personal as they were universal, elicited genuine affection and concern from her devoted fans.

While she was a consummate songwriter, Jill also felt equally comfortable covering songs made famous by others, including “Just A Little Lovin’” (on the 2000 Dusty Springfield tribute album “Forever Dusty”) and “Stoned Soul Picnic” (from the 1997 Laura Nyro tribute album “Time and Love”). Jill also didn’t shy away from political subject matter in her music with “Resistance Song,” “Soldiers of Christ,” “Attic,” “Heroes,” “Under the Disco Ball,” and the incredible “America Back” as prime examples.

Here’s something else worth mentioning about Jill. She was known for collaboration skills. As a songwriter, she maintained a multi-year creative partnership with Robin Eaton (“I Kissed A Girl” and many others), as well as Richard Barone, the gay frontman of the renowned band The Bongos. Jill’s history with Barone includes performing together at a queer Octoberfest event in Chicago in 1996. Writer and comedian Julie Sweeney, of “SNL” and “Work in Progress” fame was another Chicago collaborator with Sobule (Sweeney lives in a Chicago suburb), where they frequently performed their delightful “The Jill and Julia Show.” John Doe, of the aforementioned band X, also collaborated with Jill in the studio (“Tomorrow Is Breaking” from “Nostalgia Kills”), as well as in live performances.

On a very personal note, in 2019, when I was in the process of arranging a reading at the fabulous NYC gay bookstore Bureau of General Services – Queer Division, I reached out to Jill and asked her if she would like to be on the bill with me. We alternated performing; I would read a couple of poems, and Jill would sing a couple of songs. She even set one of my poems to music, on the spot.

Jill had an abundance of talent, and when she turned her attention to musical theater, it paid off in a big way. Her stage musical “F*ck 7th Grade,” a theatrical piece that seemed like the next logical step in her career, had its premiere at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in the fall of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. The unique staging (an outdoor drive-in stage at which audience members watched from their cars) was truly inspired. “F*ck 7th Grade” went on to become a New York Times Critic’s pick, as well as earning a Drama Desk nomination.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jill’s eponymous 1995 album, reissue label Rhino Records is re-releasing it on red vinyl. Jill and I had been emailing each other to arrange a time for an interview. We even had a date on the books for the third week of May.

When she died in a house fire in Minnesota on May 1 at age 66, Jill received mentions on network and cable news shows. She was showered with attention from major news outlets, including obits in the New York Times and Rolling Stone (but not Pitchfork, who couldn’t be bothered to review her music when she was alive). Is it wrong to think that if she’d gotten this much attention when she was alive she could have been as big as Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.

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Music & Concerts

Tom Goss returns with ‘Bear Friends Furever Tour’

Out singer/songwriter to perform at Red Bear Brewing Co.

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Singer Tom Goss is back. (Photo by Dusti Cunningham)

Singer Tom Goss will bring his “Bear Friends Furever Tour” to D.C. on Sunday, June 8 at 8 p.m. at Red Bear Brewing Co. 

Among the songs he will perform will be “Bear Soup,” the fourth installment in his beloved bear song anthology series. Following fan favorites like “Bears,” “Round in All the Right Places,” and “Nerdy Bear,” this high-energy, bass-thumping banger celebrates body positivity, joyful indulgence, and the vibrant spirit of the bear subculture.

For more details, visit Tom Goss’s website.

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Music & Concerts

Kylie brings ‘Tension’ tour to D.C.

Performance on Tuesday at Capital One Arena

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Kylie Minogue visits D.C. on Tuesday.

Aussie pop icon Kylie Minogue brings her acclaimed “Tension” world tour to D.C. next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Capital One Arena. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

The show features songs spanning her long career, from 1987 debut single, “The Loco-Motion,” to “Padam, Padam” from her album, “Tension.”

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