Album review: Backstreet Boys, DNA

Howie D., Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter, AJ McLean and Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys. Photo / Getty Images

The Backstreet Boys are on track to have a number one album...in 2019.

Since winning teen hearts in their 90s pop prime, the boy band have been steadily releasing albums over the years with DNA marking their 10th release and - according to Billboard's projections - what will be their first number one in 18 years.

Surprised? You're not alone. What's even more surprising is they still sound like The Backstreet Boys - like a boy band. It's just hard to know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing in 2019.

Chances, Chateau and The Way It Was are straight up Backstreet ballads, and Just Like You Like It sounds like it could've been a hit in 1998, with everything from the aggresively corny lyrics to the shoehorned harmonies to the slow-dance two-step tempo that reeks of a teen prom movie.

There are moments where they sound more modern, but these moments are also where they start sounding like everyone else, like how Passionate sounds like Ed Sheeran wrote a song for Zayn Malik and No Place sounds oddly like a mixture of Charlie Puth's See You Again crossed with Justin Bieber's Love Yourself.

However, there's something to be said for a boy band, which, decades after they peaked, can still sound like themselves and successfully ride the zeitgeist into 2019.

Is it a hype-worthy, game-changing release? Nope. But it's a fairly inoffensive, easy listen and an impressive step into 2019 for a boy band which is defying the odds.

Backstreet Boys, DNA

Artist: Backstreet Boys
Album: DNA
Label: Sony Music
Verdict: Nothing worth raving about, but a solid release from the boy band of pop's past.