Back in the day when Britney Spears was still unwed jailbait and Carson Daly was a TRL figurehead, the Backstreet Boys were the toast of the teenpop world. After the tinny, Eurotrashy pop of "We've Got It Goin' On" made them stars overseas in 1995, the Orlando-based quintet -- baby-faced Nick Carter, altar-boy-cherubic Brian Littrell, nondescript Howie Dorough, brooding old dude Kevin Richardson and bad-boy-with-even-worse-facial-hair A.J. McLean -- reigned over the late-'90s American charts with hits like "I Want It That Way" and "I'll Never Break Your Heart."
Five years after their last studio album, the Boys are on a small club tour in an attempt to recapture the pre-fab magic of those days. Oddly enough, however, the return of the band brings to mind another high-profile comeback kid in recent months: the godfather of alt-rock misery, Morrissey. Sound implausible that the two are linked? Think again.
First, each artist took great pains to stay out of the spotlight for a significant amount of time, at least recording-wise. The perpetually mopey Brit took a seven-year recording hiatus and emerged triumphantly last year with You Are the Quarry, although the interim found him touring sporadically and losing a lawsuit filed by former Smiths bandmates Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce. BSB, on the other hand, spent the last five studio-free years since 2000's Black and Blue unleashing a greatest-hits CD -- and chilling in rehab (McLean) or driving while intoxicated (Carter).
Style-wise, Moz and BSB favor similar threads: The cover of the new BSB single, "Incomplete," shows the boys swaggering in natty suits down what looks like a deserted desert street -- shades of Mozzer's pinstriped gangster-pose and impeccable coif on the cover of Quarry. Morrissey sports crowd-pleasing dress shirts live and has even been known to throw in costume changes during a concert -- just like the sartorial extravagance favored by the Backstreeters of yore.
Moreover, each artist's bread and butter are songs about love -- either the crushing valleys and OMGWOW!?! highs of romantic entanglement, or the bitterness inherent in a lack thereof. Although the Backstreeters tended to attain actual booty -- if songs like "I'll Never Break Your Heart" are any indication -- its "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely" and "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)" had quite a bit in common with the frustration Moz unleashed on "I Am Hated for Loving" and "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?"
At the height of their popularity, though, this sensitivity attracted a very similar fan base: adolescent girls looking for sexually ambiguous crush objects, gay men and anyone clinging to youthfulness through music. The two even share audience uncertainty now that commercial viability has been elusive in recent years. Morrissey is no longer the angst of choice for suburban misfits -- My Chemical Romance, we're looking at you -- but now has an extremely loyal Latino fan base along with a cadre of hardcore crustpunks and perpetually lovelorn Smiths lifers into him.
As for the Boys? Well, it's still too early to tell who will scream for them in 2005. Soccer moms bored with their husbands? Latent fans that now crush on Ben Gibbard but still secretly pine for McLean? Young teens ready to move beyond Hilary Duff albums? Only time will tell -- although as long as unrequited teen crushes and adult contemporary radio exist, the Boys will always have folks willing to listen. -- Annie Zaleski
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