#SongoftheWeek: Backstreet Boys – ‘Chances’

• ARTIST: Backstreet Boys
• SONG: Chances

SO ALEX, WHY IS THIS YOUR SONG OF THE WEEK?

Ask us to compile a list of our all time favourite boybands, and it’s safe to say the US titans of the genre, Backstreet Boys, figure highly on our list. Just listing their previous hits alone – “I Want It That Way”, “Everybody”, “Quit Playing Games” – is enough to justify their ranking.

Now the thing is, most boybands – especially the ones that inevitably put it all behind them a few years after their split for another bite of the pop cherry – aren’t generally supposed to have new material that ranks favourably alongside their finest moments. But much like Take That, the BSBs (as hallowed pop bible Smash Hits used to call them) are different.

Flowing forth in collaboration with the pop pens of Shawn Mendes and OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, “Chances” is a brooding, atmospheric and monstrously catchy single, that I dare say even their former productive hand Max Martin would spit with jealousy at.

Vocally they sound the tightest they’ve ever been, and something about this record still sounds so current without neglecting what it is that first made them one of pop’s most exciting bands over two decades ago. Backstreet’s back? Damn straight it is.

‘Chances’ is available to stream and download now, and Backstreet Boys’ new album ‘DNA’ is released on 25th January 2019, both via RCA/Sony. The band head over to the UK for a tour next year, kicking off on 10th June at Manchester Arena. Twitter: @BackstreetBoys

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