''DNA'' is the ninth studio album (eighth in the US) by the
Backstreet Boys
Backstreet Boys (often abbreviated as BSB) are an American vocal group consisting of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, and cousins Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson. Lou Pearlman formed the group in 1993 in Orlando, Florida.
The gr ...
. The album was first released in Japan on January 23, 2019, and everywhere else on January 25, 2019, through a collaboration with the group's own K-BAHN
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
and
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...
. The album features tracks written by
Edei,
Lauv
Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (), is an American singer and musician, best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album ''I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)'', wh ...
,
Andy Grammer
Andrew Charles Grammer (born December 3, 1983) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is signed to S-Curve Records.
His debut album, ''Andy Grammer'', was released in 2011 and spawned the singles " Keep Your Head Up" and " Fi ...
,
Stuart Crichton
Stuart Crichton is a music producer/songwriter from Scotland, currently based in Los Angeles, California.
Career
Starting out in 1989 under the name Solo, Stuart self-released the ''Sample Free EP'' in 1990 which featured the song "Rainbow", us ...
,
Ryan Tedder
Ryan Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. As well as being the lead vocalist of the pop rock band OneRepublic, he has an independent career as a songwriter and producer for various artists since th ...
and
Shawn Mendes
Shawn Peter Raul Mendes (; born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian pop singer. He gained a following in 2013, when he posted song covers on the video sharing platform Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manager Andrew Gert ...
. This is the group's second album, after 2007's ''
Unbreakable
Unbreakable may refer to:
* '' Unbreakable: My Story, My Way'', a book written by Jenni Rivera
* Unbreakable (horse) (1935–1962), a Thoroughbred racehorse and sire
Film and television
* ''Unbreakable'' (film series), a trilogy directed by M ...
'', without involvement from longtime producers and friends
and
Kristian Lundin
Kristian Lundin (born 7 May 1973) is a Swedish composer, music producer and songwriter.
Biography
Kristian's worked on the song " Quit Playing Games (with My Heart)" which he co-produced with Max Martin for the Backstreet Boys. He co-wrote & pro ...
. It also serves as the follow-up to their eighth studio album (seventh in the US) ''
In a World Like This
''In a World Like This'' is the eighth studio album (seventh in the US) by the Backstreet Boys. It was released on July 30, 2013, through the group's own K-BAHN record label, under license to BMG Rights Management, and distributed by RED Distribu ...
(2013)''. It was preceded by the singles "
Don't Go Breaking My Heart
"Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is a 1976 duet by English musician Elton John and English singer Kiki Dee. It was written by John with Bernie Taupin under the pseudonyms "Ann Orson" and "Carte Blanche", respectively, and intended as an affection ...
", "
Chances
Chances may refer to:
* ''Chances'' (TV series), an Australian soap opera
* ''Chances'' (Philippine TV series), a prime-time soap opera
* '' Chances: The Women of Magdalene'', a 2006 documentary film
* ''Chances'' (novel), a 1981 novel by Jac ...
", "No Place", and is supported by the
DNA World Tour
The DNA World Tour was the eleventh concert tour by American vocal group Backstreet Boys in support of their tenth studio album, '' DNA'' (2019). The tour performed over 150 shows in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. It was the n ...
, which is the band's most expansive in 18 years. The tour began on May 11, 2019, in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Portugal,
before visiting North America in July 2019.
The album is their first on one of
Sony Music's subsidiary companies after ''In a World Like This'' was released independently through
BMG BMG may refer to:
Organizations
* Music publishing companies:
** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008
*** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...
. It debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200, becoming the Backstreet Boys' third number-one album there and the first since ''
Black & Blue'' in 2000.
Background and promotion
A press release stated that the group "analyzed their individual DNA profiles to see what crucial element each member represents in the group's DNA".
Kevin Richardson said of the album: "We were able to bring all of our influences and styles into one coherent piece of work. These songs are a great representation of who we are as individuals and who we are as a group. It's our DNA. We're really proud of that."
DNA is also short for "Digital and Analog" which is how the boys started recording in the 1990s.
The group announced the name of the album and its release date on November 9, 2018. The same day, they also released the single "
Chances
Chances may refer to:
* ''Chances'' (TV series), an Australian soap opera
* ''Chances'' (Philippine TV series), a prime-time soap opera
* '' Chances: The Women of Magdalene'', a 2006 documentary film
* ''Chances'' (novel), a 1981 novel by Jac ...
" and announced the
DNA World Tour
The DNA World Tour was the eleventh concert tour by American vocal group Backstreet Boys in support of their tenth studio album, '' DNA'' (2019). The tour performed over 150 shows in the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. It was the n ...
in support of the album, which began in May 2019.
Critical reception
''DNA'' received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 67 based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Commercial performance
''DNA'' debuted at number one on the US
''Billboard'' 200 with 234,000
album-equivalent unit
The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s, of which 227,000 were pure album sales.
It is the Backstreet Boys' third number-one album and first in 19 years, the last being ''
Black & Blue'' (2000). It also makes this their eighth consecutive top-ten album following ''
In a World Like This
''In a World Like This'' is the eighth studio album (seventh in the US) by the Backstreet Boys. It was released on July 30, 2013, through the group's own K-BAHN record label, under license to BMG Rights Management, and distributed by RED Distribu ...
'' (2013), and set the group's record of generating number-one albums for three consecutive decades (1990-2010).
In Canada, the album debuted at number one with over 46,000 first week sales. On January 3, 2020 the album was certified platinum with over 80,000 sales. This is also the 5th highest-selling album in Canada in 2019 in terms of physical copies.
As of January 20, 2020, the album sold over 416,000 copies in the US.
Track listing
Credits adapted from
Apple Music
Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...
.
Notes
* signifies an additional producer
* signifies a vocal producer
Personnel
Credits adapted from album’s liner notes.
Backstreet Boys
*
Nick Carter
*
Howie Dorough
Howard Dwaine Dorough (born August 22, 1973) is an American singer. He is a member of the pop vocal group Backstreet Boys.
Early life
Dorough was born August 22, 1973, in Orlando, Florida, where he met his friend and bandmate A.J. McLean throug ...
*
Brian Littrell
Brian Thomas Littrell (born February 20, 1975) is an American singer and a member of the Backstreet Boys. He is also a contemporary Christian music artist, and released the solo album '' Welcome Home'' in 2006. He is the father of country singer ...
*
AJ McLean
Alexander James McLean (born January 9, 1978) is an American singer, dancer, actor and a member of the pop vocal group Backstreet Boys.
Early life
McLean was born on January 9, 1978, in West Palm Beach, Florida, to Denise (née Fernandez, n ...
*
Kevin Richardson
Additional personnel
*
Mitch Allan
Mitchell Allan Scherr, known professionally as Mitch Allan, is an American record producer, songwriter, and musician. He has written and produced songs for artists such as Demi Lovato, Third Eye Blind, Miley Cyrus, Carlie Hanson, Jason Derulo, Pi ...
– vocal production
(track 5)
* Ed Boyer – mixing
(track 3)
* Ben Bram – producer, arranger, engineer, and additional vocals
(track 3)
*
Ross Copperman
Ross Copperman (born October 1, 1982) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and producer with 29 number one radio hits. After his experience as an artist in the UK, Copperman discovered his talent for writing and producing country mus ...
– producer, engineer, mixing, programming, guitars, and keyboards
(track 11)
* Serge Courtois – mixing
(track 8)
*
Stuart Crichton
Stuart Crichton is a music producer/songwriter from Scotland, currently based in Los Angeles, California.
Career
Starting out in 1989 under the name Solo, Stuart self-released the ''Sample Free EP'' in 1990 which featured the song "Rainbow", us ...
– producer, beats, and programming
(tracks 1, 9, 10, 12); engineer
(tracks 1, 9, 10); piano and synthesizers
(track 1); vocal producer
(track 6)
* Josh Ditty – assistant engineer
(track 11)
*
Eric J. Dubowsky – mixing
(tracks 9, 10, 12)
*
Serban Ghenea
Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer.
Early life and education
Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attended ...
– mixing
(tracks 1, 4, 7)
* Josh Gudwin – mixing
(tracks 2, 5, 6)
* John Hanes – mix engineer
(tracks 1, 4, 7)
*
Kuk Harrell
Thaddis Laphonia "Kuk" Harrell ( ) is an American songwriter, vocal producer, arranger and engineer. He was a member of a songwriting–production team composed of himself, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and The-Dream, Terius "The-Dream" Nash. In ...
– vocal production
(tracks 4, 7)
*
Jamie Hartman
Jamie Hartman (born 1971) is an English songwriter and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee, and the former lead singer of the indie-pop band Ben's Brother.
Early life
Hartman was born and raised in London.
Career Ben's Brother
Hartman formed ...
– producer, engineer, piano, synthesizers, and bass
(track 1)
*
Erik Hassle
Kaj Erik Persson Hassle (born 26 August 1988) is a Swedish pop singer and songwriter. His career started in 2008 with his first single, " Hurtful", which eventually reached No. 11 in Sweden and peaked at No. 2 in Denmark. His most successful sin ...
– electric piano
(track 4)
* Hunter Jackson – mixing assistant
(tracks 2, 5, 6)
* Steve James – producer
(track 2)
*
Josh Kear
Josh Kear is a Nashville-based songwriter signed to Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
In 2007, he cowrote Carrie Underwood’s hit "Before He Cheats" with Chris Tompkins. The song spent five weeks at the top of the charts. His song "Drinking Class", pe ...
– additional production
(track 11)
* Scott Kelly – assistant engineer
(track 7)
* Joe Kirkland – guitar
(track 12)
*
Ian Kirkpatrick
Ian Andrew Kirkpatrick (born 24 May 1946) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. Described as "supremely athletic, fast, fearless and with an uncanny sense of anticipation", Kirkpatrick is widely regarded as one of the greatest flankers t ...
– producer, engineer, instruments, and programming
(track 6)
* Dave Kutch – mastering
*
Ari Leff
Ari Staprans Leff (born August 8, 1994), known professionally as Lauv (), is an American singer and musician, best known for his breakout hit "I Like Me Better"; included on his compilation album ''I Met You When I Was 18 (The Playlist)'', whi ...
– additional production
(track 2)
* Elof Loelv – producer, instrumentation, programming, and engineer
(track 4)
* Elijah Marrett-Hitch – mixing assistant
(tracks 2, 5, 6)
*
Ryan Ogren
Ryan Ogren is an American singer, songwriter and record producer signed to Prescription Songs. He began his musical career playing in the band Don't Look Down, and then later Over It and Runner Runner. More recently, Ogren has been writing and ...
– producer
(track 2)
* David Phelan – engineer
(track 4)
* Michael Pollack – additional keyboards
(track 9)
* Rich Rich – engineer
(track 7)
* Zach Skelton – producer, guitar, drums, keyboards, and programming
(track 7)
* Casey Smith – backing vocals
(track 7)
* Steven Solomon – producer, guitar, bass, and programming
(track 8)
*
Garrison Starr
Garrison Starr (born Julia Garrison Starr on April 29, 1975) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter/producer. Her major label debut, "18 Over Me" was released in 1997 (Geffen). Starr's shows have been described as "marrying pop smarts ...
– guitar
(track 10)
*
The Stereotypes
The Stereotypes are a production team created in 2003, comprising Jonathan Yip, Ray Romulus, Jeremy Reeves and Ray Charles McCullough II. In June 2010, they were listed among the "Top 10 Songwriters and Producers to Watch" in ''Billboard'' magazi ...
– producers
(track 5)
*
Ryan Tedder
Ryan Tedder (born June 26, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. As well as being the lead vocalist of the pop rock band OneRepublic, he has an independent career as a songwriter and producer for various artists since th ...
– producer and additional programming
(track 7)
* Simone Torres – vocal engineer
(tracks 4, 7)
* Jake Troth – additional production
(track 4)
* Tim Watt – mixing assistant
(tracks 9, 10, 12)
* The Wiild – producer
(track 5)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Release history
References
{{Authority control
2019 albums
Albums produced by Ryan Tedder
Backstreet Boys albums
RCA Records albums