Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 09/01/06
Label: BMG

In 1996, pop overlord Max Martin was at the peak of his mighty powers. His ingenious songwriting had already made stars of the Backstreet Boys and Five, "…Baby one more time" lay just around the corner and he was helping launch the latest plastic-faced boyband, clumsily called 'NSYNC, on the world. If someone had suggested they would be the Last Great Boyband he would surely have roared with Swedish-inflected laughter.

Yet that's exactly what history has proven, unless you count feeble facsimiles like O-Town, and as such *NSYNC's "Greatest Hits" has a curiously nostalgic feel to it, a record of a more carefree, disposable time before the Spears and Timberlakes ran weeping into the arms of Pharrell Williams begging for solo credibility. And not only is it an interesting historical record, it happens to be a fine pop one too.

Taking a non-chronological approach conceals just how rapidly *NSYNC grew up over the course of three albums, moving from the bombastic everything-plus-the-kitchen sink production of "I Want You Back" to the prickly minimalism of "Celebrity". In between the five-some never matched the harmonic lushness of the Backstreet Boys, but made up for it with a brash pop attitude and a handful of marvellous tunes.

Of these, the Martin productions have aged least well, although scrape the heavy-handed synths and shuddering rhythms off "Bye Bye Bye" and "Tearing Up My Heart" and there are some insistent melodies underneath (though nothing to match A1's sparkling "Same Old Brand New You"). Far better is the squelching, fluid "Pop", where Timberlake's ever-improving harmonies surf on waves of crunchy guitar and jittery breakbeats.

Of course, as all teenage girls know, the true worth of a boyband lies in their ballads, and here *NSYNC score less well than Take That or Backstreet Boys, though vastly better than Westlife. "This I Promise You" is typical simpering and best avoided, but "Girlfriend" has a genuine tenderness that lifts it above the pack and "Gone" is minimal and aching, a quite lovely song which also serves as Timberlake's audition for solo success.

Indeed, history seems likely to remember *NSYNC more as a launchpad for Timberlake than a truly classic boyband in their own right, but (until the next one comes along) this remains the last great album by the last great boyband and a welcome reminder of the potency of cheap music.

    by Jaime Gill