The group’s most convincing attempt to introduce America’s teenyboppers to the sounds of two-step garage, “Up Against the Wall” also provides the record’s raunchiest moment. Here, it’s a fame-seeking girlfriend who spends a little too much time at the Playboy mansion that incurs their wrath. But “Just Don’t Tell Me That” loses points for the bitterness toward the opposite sex that runs throughout much of the album. Cheiron’s Kristian Lundin and Andreas Carlsson were called upon for this pure pop stomper which sounds exactly like what you’d expect from the men behind “Bye Bye Bye.” That’s not a bad thing, of course. It’s unlikely to have been blared out in Ayia Napa yet it’s no disgrace, either.ĭespite all their experimental talk, *NSYNC didn’t entirely abandon the Swedish hitmakers that helped to put them on the map. One of three Chasez co-writes with the team behind Eurodance outfit Love Inc., “The Two of Us” makes the more tentative foray, with its verses taking on the form of a R&B waltz. So it was a surprise to hear essentially the biggest band in the States adopt the sound not just once but twice.

Other than Craig David’s “Fill Me In,” the two-step garage scene that dominated the UK charts during Y2K never really traveled across the Atlantic. Yet “Do Your Thing” is more filler than triumphant finale. Moss dropping some quite frankly ridiculous bars (“Gotta hump, gotta bump, never sit on a stump/Never quit from the swell of a lump”) over some stuttering electronic beats and that early ’00s R&B mainstay, the harpsichord. Instead of Timberlake beatboxing, this time around we get songwriter J. *NSYNC made one last-ditch attempt to prove that they’re more interesting than the average boy band with a jittery self-empowering anthem which, like its other bookend, throws an unexpected burst of hip-hop into the mix. But the penultimate number is slightly redeemed by an understated chorus which bears a resemblance to Boyz II Men’s final chart-topper “4 Seasons of Loneliness.” It even wastes the album’s only guest star, the one and only Stevie Wonder, on a corny harmonica riff, too. You can certainly picture Chasez sincerely grabbing the air while delivering schmaltzy lines like “I would die for you/Cause I don’t want to live without you.” Produced by Brian McKnight, “Selfish” ultimately sounds more like a 98 Degrees B-side than a pop outfit at the top of their game.Ĭo-written by the group’s vocal coach Robin Wiley, the equally slushy “Something Like You” is also guilty of the eyeroll-worthy lyric that now sounds like a parody from the Lonely Island (“Something keeps telling me that you could be my answered prayer/You must be heaven sent, I swear”). *NSYNC’s claims that they were no longer the cliched boy band once masterminded by Lou Pearlman were slightly undermined by the fact that this drippy ballad could have quite comfortably slotted onto their eponymous 1997 debut. But does it still hold up 20 years on? From treacly love songs to two-step bangers, here are its 13 tracks ranked from worst to best. In fact, by inadvertently laying the groundwork for Timberlake’s solo career, it proved to be too effective – the quintet would never enter the studio together again. Unlike their forefathers New Kids on the Block’s misguided attempt to go street, *NSYNC’s quest for authenticity didn’t embarrass.

“We also wanted to prove that pop music comes in a lot of different flavors.

“Our objective was not to be self-conscious and try to make another hit record,” Chasez told Billboard ahead of its 2001 release. Members of Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC & Boyz II Men Team Up For Las Vegas 'After Party'

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