THE BACKSTREETBOYS: Album Review: 'This Is Us'

The best song on Backstreet Boys' new album "This Is Us" is also by far
the weirdest and creepiest. "PDA," an ode to the pleasure of public
groping, splits the difference between the exhibitionist euphoria of
Usher's "Love in  This Club" and Andy Samberg's "Saturday Night Live"
skit about the travails of overly, um, sensitive men, the title of
which cannot be reprinted in a family newspaper.

Coming from a
band better known for its blow-out Max Martin ballads, it should be an
embarrassing bit of lechery -- apparently even the grocery store is an
acceptable forum for feelin' on a target's booty. But it's just absurd
and un-self-aware enough to enter the pop vocabulary, which
unfortunately can't be said for much else on "This Is Us," a competent
but very late-adopted pop-trance slurry.

Though the Boys were
one of the biggest pop acts of the '90s, they largely hand the reins
off to their producers here, who include Lady GaGa’s hit-maker RedOne, Jim Jonsin and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder.

Cuts
like "Bye Bye Love" and "Straight Through My Heart" have au courant
hotel-lounge decadence to them, and "She's a Dream" benefits from the
light melodic touch of guest T-Pain. But when the boys extol a lady's
virtues because "she don't even know I'm a celebrity," the lyric rings
of self-fulfilling prophecy.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/10/album-review-backstreet-boys-this-is-us.html