Greatest Hits

SURELY it wasn’t too long ago that Justin Timberlake and co were just another batch of wannabes trying to ride the boyband train to success? When these guys first emerged in the late 1990s with an inadvertently hilarious video for I Want You Back, nobody could have guessed that within a couple of years they’d be among the hottest properties of the pop world.

But the truth is that, along with stablemates Backstreet Boys, ’NSync managed to make a rip-roaring career out with just four or five really catchy songs. Bunched together at the first half of the group’s career (before the boys started taking themselves too seriously and tried to make “soulful” music), these include Tearin’ Up My Heart, Bye Bye Bye and It’s Gonna Be Me.

As was the case with most manufactured pop acts, three albums were all it took for the game to be up and by the tail end of its career, this lot was to be found making particularly nauseating ballads like Gone and I’ll Never Stop. That Timberlake would go on to be America’s answer to Robbie Williams wasn’t necessarily a given at the time, but I for one am grateful that the ride is over for ’NSync and its kind. I will say that I do find them to be amongst the best of the boybands, but even their most ardent fan will concede that the time for this music has come and gone.

Incidentally, this CD comes with a bonus VCD although the value of that addition is depleted somewhat by the fact that it is the re-shot version of I Want You Back, which is included.