Under the teen-pop beats and R&B-trained harmonies, Bon Jovi-style bombast has often lurked beneath the Backstreet Boys' surface. Now that boy-band dance grooves have vanished from radio airwaves, the urge to rock out in a superslick power ballad kinda way dominates Never Gone, the first album in five years from Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, A.J. McLean and Nick Carter. Never Gone never attains the dizzy heights of previous hits and never reaches far enough toward new territory: The lead single, "Incomplete," borrows enough from Coldplay's piano atmospherics to be both halfway decent and disturbingly crass, and Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik contributes "Weird World," which suggests Ben Folds without the wit. Whether working with their original Swedish Svengali, Max Martin, or platinum producers like John Shanks (Michelle Branch, Kelly Clarkson), the Backstreet men rarely accelerate beyond a midtempo thud. And with all the millions they've made, can't the Backstreet organization afford someone to write better titles than "My Beautiful Woman" and "Poster Girl"?

“Satisfied”

Only the genius of Tom Waits could combine the subject of mortality, a reoccurring theme in his work, with wordplay that name checks both Mick and Keith, whom he calls "Mr. Jagger" and "Mr. Richards," and the title of their magnum opus, "Satisfaction." And to show just how cool Waits really is, he even got Mr. Richards to play along, one of nine guest appearances the guitarist has made on three Waits albums. "This growling roadhouse stomp is a late-breaking response to the Stones' greatest hit," Rolling Stone said of the track.