Album info

• Title Black & Blue
• Artist Backstreet Boys
• Year 2000
• Genre Pop

Tracklist

1. The Call
2. Shape of My Heart
3. Get Another Boyfriend
4. Shining Star
5. I Promise You (With Everything I Am)
6. The Answer to Our Life
7. Everyone
8. More Than That
9. Time
10. Not for Me
11. Yes I Will
12. It’s True
13. How Did I Fall in Love with You

Thoughts

This is the last of the Backstreet Boys albums that I was properly obsessed with when it came out, and that has me pondering: do I like this album because it’s good or do I like it because I know it so well? If I listened to it for the first time now would I love it as much as I do?

I don’t have the answer for that but all I can say is that I do love it. Listening to it now with some slightly older and wiser ears, it definitely tails off towards the end. After Not for Me, the final three songs are a bit wishy-washy and they do leave you on a bit of a downer.

Also, we recently watched a brief documentary about Denniz PoP and Max Martin, and I can now hear a lot of the things they were talking about in this album. The most obvious example being those alternative choruses that come in towards the end of a song, and are then layered on top of the actual chorus to the finish. There’s so much of that in Black & Blue!

Anyway, it’s amazing what you hear when you stop and listen, but I still love it and probably always will.

Rating: 5 / 5