Additional personnel: John Shanks (guitar, keyboards); Mitch Allan (guitar, bass guitar); Dave Schuler, Billy Mann (guitar); Emanuel Kiriakou (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, percussion, programming); Chuck Butler (electric guitar, bass guitar); Josh Muckala, Adam Lester (electric guitar); David Davidson (violin); Stevie Blacke (strings); David Hodges (piano, keyboards); Pete Wallace (piano); Dan Muckala (keyboards, programming); Jamie Muhoberac (keyboards); Paul Bushnell (bass guitar); Jeremy Lutito, Lee Levin, Dorian Crozier, Vinnie Colaiuta (drums); Neff-U, Zukhan Bey (programming); Daniel Chase, Jeff Rothschild (drum programming).
By 2007, the Backstreet Boys weren't exactly boys anymore, but UNBREAKABLE, the group's seventh release, proved they still had the easy-breezy boyish charm that made them darlings of the late-1990s teen-pop set. Here a quartet (Kevin Richardson left the band while they were recording UNBREAKABLE), the Boys are streamlined, and the fact that the members are older is reflected in the album's lean toward adult contemporary material.
The lead-off single, "Inconsolable," a romantic ballad with a dramatic punch, is a case in point; as is the sweet, mid-tempo ballad "Something I Already Know." Ballads and love songs were always one of the Backstreet Boys' specialties, and UNBREAKABLE plays to that strength, with six of the album's tracks sounding tailor-made for adult contemporary radio. But the group hasn't abandoned its dance-pop roots, as the energized "Everything But Mine" and the edgier-sounding "Treat Me Right" attest. A strong statement by the last classic boy band still standing, UNBREAKABLE will satisfy longtime devotees who have grown up right alongside them.
Entertainment Weekly (p.64) - "[T]hey come close to recreating the sheer euphoria of their biggest pre-Y2K smashes on many of the up-tempo dance-pop numbers..."
Category: Rock & Pop
Release Date: 10/30/07
Originally Released: 2007
Mono / Stereo: Stereo
Discs: 1
Availability: Y
Studio / Live: Studio
Area: USA
Is Import: N
Distributor: BMG (distributor)