If you didn’t know the Backstreet Boys were still making music, you might be very surprised to find out the now-foursome’s seventh disc is the best album of their career, not only because it contains eleven great tracks of synth-loving, harmony-laden, danceable tunes, but because it doesn’t contain any bad songs either.

“This Is Us” by Backstreet Boys

4 out of 5 stars

In 2005 and 2007, respectively, the two previous albums by the Boys (Never Gone and Unbreakable) were two good-but-not-great trials through alternative rock, adult contemporary and larger-than-life balladry. It would be easy to call the Boys posers when they decided to make the jump to an album of smooth dance-pop, hip-hop and R&B a la producers such as T-Pain and RedOne (producer of Lady Gaga’s record The Fame). Skeptics of the band supposed this album would be a complete disaster.

This Is Us¸ however, is a complete success. The Boy’s latest work reaches a level of extreme greatness and fun that will have an impact on listeners even greater than their mega-hit Millennium. Filled with eleven surprisingly great tunes, Us truly has something for everyone. The first three songs (reportedly the first three singles) range from the dance-club rave of “Straight Through My Heart,” the emotional and restrained balladry of “Bigger,” produced by longtime-collaborator Max Martin, and the bumping rhythm-and-blues of “Bye Bye Love.”

One of the great attributes of the album is the “filler” songs are actually as good as the singles. Songs like “All of Your Life (You Need Love)” are the reason why people buy albums in the first place. Non-stop piano fun from start to finish, “All” is likely the happiest song the Boys ever recorded.

Unfortunately, the mid-summer leak of the album gave listeners some great songs that didn’t appear on the album even though they deserved to. The leak also revealed the album’s best three songs, “Masquerade,” “Shattered,” and “This is Us,” three raw and powerful songs with perfect writing, pop knowledge and a great sense of emotion. But these unmixed versions of the songs ended up receiving big makeovers before hitting stores, which mainly included adding more Auto-Tune and stuffing in more synth parts. In “Masquerade,” the changes make the song even stronger, where the only issue is the harmonies are harder to hear. “This is Us” remains mainly the same, but the end product is a bit too glossy for its own good. “Shattered,” however, gets the bad end of the deal. Brian Littrell’s original vocals get washed away in Auto-Tune, and the emptiness the lyrics were supposed to portray gets filled with noise. Altogether these flaws keep This Is Us from being the year’s perfect pop album.

I highly suggest you purchase this album, (and you should also find on YouTube the B-Side songs “All in My Head,” “Helpless,” “Fallen Angel” and the Ne-Yo produced “Trouble”), but I warn you that this album isn’t immediately gratifying. Many of the songs will take multiple spins before the gears start clicking. But that is the sign of good pop: it takes time for the songs to open up and reveal their goodness. Some critics, such as Slant Magazine and the Los Angeles times, didn’t like this album, but their complaints were the same complaints I had upon listening to the album once. Most of their words concerned the lame lyrics, such as in “PDA,” which in spite of being a great song talks literally about public displays of affection. If you can get past these tiny “problems” and see that these are great pop songs performed by some of the best singers in the business, than you will be extremely pleased and proud that you have returned to the Backstreet.

Best Songs: “Straight Through My Heart” “PDA” “Masquerade”