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Backstreet’s back, alright!

Only this time, critics are not grooving to the music.

The Backstreet Boys have returned with their seventh studio album entitled, This Is Us. But reviews are in, and they are not in favour of the boy (er, man?) band.

The album was released on October 6, and music critics across North America are in agreement: that sure, the Boys deliver a few catchy tunes, but that at the end of the day the album just sounds like a regurgitation of their previous hits.

“Though the Boys were one of the biggest pop acts of the ’90s, they largely hand the reins off to their producers here, who include Lady Gaga’s hit-maker RedOne, Jim Jonsin and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder,” writes August Brown of the Los Angeles Times. “Cuts like ‘Bye Bye Love’ and ‘Straight Through My Heart’ have au courant hotel-lounge decadence to them, and ‘She’s a Dream’ benefits from the light melodic touch of guest T-Pain. But when the boys extol a lady’s virtues because ’she don’t even know I’m a celebrity,’ the lyric rings of self-fulfilling prophecy.”

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BACKSTREET BOY NICK CARTER’s mother has denied dumping his pitbull terrier in a Florida animal shelter without the pop star’s knowledge.

Jane Carter was reported to have dropped the dog, Layla, off at a Tampa-area animal home at the beginning of the week (27Aug07), after her eldest son asked her to babysit his pet.

Singer Nick, who rescued the dog from a Los Angeles animal shelter last year (06), was said to only have found out about his mother’s actions when a volunteer at the shelter identified Layla via a microchip implant and phoned him.

However, Jane has dismissed the allegation as “baloney”, claiming she handed Layla to a “friend of her husband” to look after, only for the pooch to escape at which point animal services picked her up, reports website TMZ.com. (GES/WNWCMZ)

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Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys is angered by the mention of his name in a lawsuit filed by his younger sister’s roommate.

Kathryn Kelly has filed a lawsuit against her former roommate, Bobby Jean Carter, 23, claiming she had assaulted her during the month of April.

According to the lawsuit, Kelly claims Bobby Jean “stabbed Kelly with a knife in her thumb, leg and arms,” as well as, “punched, choked, pinned and forcefully struck Kelly multiple times,” reported E! Online.

Mentioned also were Carter, 25, and his father, Robert. The suit claims they did not supervise Bobby Jean during the time of the attacks while she worked for her father and as her brother’s assistant.

“It is obvious that the only reason Nick Carter was named in this lawsuit was so that she could get publicity, since her lawsuit does not contain any claim that Nick Carter personally engaged in any wrongful conduct harming the accuser. We are confident that the court will promptly dispose of these frivolous and fictional claims against Nick Carter,” stated Carter’s attorney, Martin D. Singer.

“After the case is completed, he plans on filing for sanctions against her and her counsel to stop her and others like her from attempting to capitalize on his name,” said Carter’s rep, Juliette Harris.

Carter and the Backstreet Boys are preparing to kick off their summer tour.

The Backstreet Boys had succeeded in making a comeback this summer, but youngest member Nick Carter still had one more hurdle to face: a drunken driving charge he obtained four months ago.

Yesterday, Carter was ordered to three years of informal probation, a three-month alcohol-treatment program, and restricted driving privileges for 90 days. He was also fined $1,200.

The deal was agreed upon by prosecutors in Orange County, California, where the singer was pulled over on Mar. 5 for erratic driving in Huntington Beach. He was slapped with two misdemeanour charges after failing a field sobriety test.

The pop star pleaded guilty to one count of driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol count of over 0.08, the legal limit. The second DUI count was dropped in exchange for the guilty plea. Because the charge was a misdemeanour, Carter wasn’t required to be present at the hearing.

The terms were settled last Thursday, avoiding a preliminary hearing in the case set for today. Orange County Deputy District Attorney Tate McCallister told reporters that Carter’s alcohol treatment will be on an outpatient basis.

Initially, the 25-year-old musician pleaded not guilty to the charges in April, with his rep denying he was driving under the influence.

“Nick Carter deeply regrets the current situation. He is on doctor-prescribed medication and was unaware of its interaction possibilities,” his publicist Juliette Harris said.

Two weeks ago, the Backstreet Boys released their fifth studio album, Never Gone, which is on its way to worldwide success. It debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and had top five debuts in countries around the world. In total, the group has sold over 73 million albums worldwide since they first formed in the early ’90s. This summer, the band will be hitting the road for a North American tour, which kicks off July 22 at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Earlier this week, we brought you all the information from our interview with Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, and so far, thousands of people have read it and learned more about his upcoming album.

Now we bring you some of the video of the interview, conducted at a Hilary Duff charity event earlier this week.

PLEASE do not link directly to the video! Link to this article. Thank You

Nick Carter surprised his fans last year when his debut solo album was full of rock music. For his next album, Carter will use the styles that made the Backstreet Boys icons.

“What I had done on the last album, I had gone out and did rock music,” Carter tells andPOP, in Toronto for a charity event hosted by Hilary Duff. “It was rock-pop with a little bit of a rock edge.”

“Now what I want to do is kind of go back to my roots. My up-tempo is going to be pop-rock, with dance music, so I can probably dance to it again. The mid-tempo is going to be kind of Backstreet sounding. Low-tempo is going to be R&B, slow, kind of reminiscent of the Backstreet Boys.”

While Carter is changing his sound a little for his upcoming second solo album, his rock influences will still be evident, with the help from Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee.

“I’ve got a lot of respect from people like Tommy,” Carter says. “Tommy is probably going to be playing some drums on the record with me.”

He also plans to work with producers Rodney Jerkins, Fred Jerkins, and Teddy Riley, and artists like Snow, and maybe even Elton John.

“It’s going to be packed with a lot of celebrities that I’m going to be reaching out to this time around. This one’s going to be hot. I’m out for blood this time around.”

Carter will begin recording in the next two weeks.

As for the status on the Backstreet Boys, Carter remains mum.

“We’re on hiatus for right now.”

Want to see a video of the interview? Check back to andPOP later this week.