Never Gone
| Never Gone | ||||
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| Studio album by Backstreet Boys | ||||
| Released | June 14, 2005 | |||
| Recorded | January 26, 2004–March 2005; Westlake Audio, Henson Recording Studios, Conway Recording Studios (Hollywood, CA) Dr. Luke's New York (New York City) Woodland Ranch (Woodland Hills, CA) Maratone Studio (, Sweden) The Village Recorder, The Underlab (Los Angeles, CA) Turtle Sound Studios (New York City) |
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| Genre | Pop rock, dance-pop | |||
| Length | 47:41 | |||
| Label | Jive | |||
| Producer | Johan Brorson, Dr. Luke, John Fields, Billy Mann, Max Martin, Dan Muckala, Christian Nilsson, John Shanks, Supa'Flyas, Mark Taylor, Gregg Wattenberg, Paul Wiltshire, Victoria Wu, Rami Yacoub | |||
| Backstreet Boys chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Never Gone | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (40/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| Blender | |
| E! Online | C |
| Entertainment Weekly | C |
| People | |
| PopMatters |   |
| Robert Christgau | C |
| Rolling Stone | |
| USA Today | |
Never Gone is the fifth (fourth in the U.S.) studio album released by American vocal group Backstreet Boys as the follow up to their fourth (third in the U.S.) studio album Black & Blue after a short hiatus. Never Gone was originally due for release in 2004, but the release date for the album was pushed to June 14, 2005 for unknown reasons.
The album varies musically from their previous albums, with a rock sound to the album. Unlike previous albums, the album featured only live instruments. The album is named after a song on it which mourns the loss of Kevin Richardson's father.
Never Gone was the last album to feature Kevin Richardson, who departed from the group in 2006 to pursue other interests, until his return in 2012.
The Never Gone Tour commenced soon after the album's release. On December 20, 2005, the group released the DVD Never Gone: The Videos, which included behind the scenes footage and the music videos for "Incomplete", "Just Want You to Know", and "I Still...". The DVD also includes a slideshow with the instrumental audio of "Just Want You to Know", and an interview in Germany regarding their upcoming tour.
Initial critical response to Never Gone were surprisingly generally negative due to the change from the band's traditional pop style to a more mature adult contemporary sound. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 40, based on 7 reviews, becoming the seventeenth worst reviewed album on the site.
Never Gone was certified as a Platinum record in the U.S., selling 293,000 copies during the first week and debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, making it the band's fifth platinum-selling album and fifth consecutive top ten album in the U.S. following The Hits – Chapter One in 2001. In Japan, it was the second biggest Western album in 2005 and had sold more than 750,000 copies by January 2006. It went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. And certificated Gold and Platinum record at 11 different countries.
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