Artist: Backstreet Boys Album: Never Gone (Zomba)

The Boys are back but they're not alright.

After Black & Blue, scores of uninspiring greatest hits collections and dismal solo records from individual band members, the world was more than prepared for the demise of the Orlando- based quintet.

After all, most of their peers, the likes of Boyzone, 98 Degrees and Westlife, have closed their chapters in pop history.

Turns out, however, that the Boys just wouldn't go away. Banking on fan loyalty, the group released Never Gone earlier this summer, a collection of new material that sounds just like their old stuff -- designs rushed straight from the hit-factory.

These are hummable tunes, however, that will give fans likely to be far too old now for this sort of pap guilty pleasures from playing them -- over and over and over again.

However, despite the slick production and hooks-a-plenty songcraft a lot of this stuff just is so formulaic that it's easy to thrash this record after a few listens. Still, the Boys do deserve a credit, at least, for perseverance. M. Taufiqurrahman