November 6, 2000
Shape Of My Heart
It's comeback time for the self-proclaimed biggest boyband on the planet...
Pulling the same strings as previous comeback single 'I Want It That Way', 'Shape Of My Heart' is the kind of ballad-except-not-quite in which the Backstreet Boys specialise, and, for those of us unfortunate enough to have heard 'The Perfect Fan' off 'Millennium', the importance of that 'not-quite' factor cannot be underestimated.
No surprises here, of course, but the Boys have never been the kind of band to take your breath away with experimentation in the music form. What we do have is a solid pop cranker that marks the bright-eyed return of what advertisements claim is "the biggest boy-band on the planet", even though most of their fans insist that they're actually a "vocal harmony group". Whatever.
Sadly, we never do quite find out what shape the Backstreet Boys' hearts are, though it would be safe to speculate that they're probably, er, heart-shaped. Like Kurt Cobain's box. And we don't mean Courtney.
Peter Robinson
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