Never Gone | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 14, 2005 | |||
Recorded | January 26, 2004 – March 2005 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | Pop[1] | |||
Length | 47:41 | |||
Label | Jive | |||
Producer |
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Backstreet Boys chronology | ||||
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Singles from Never Gone | ||||
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Never Gone is the fifth studio album (fourth in the US) released by American vocal group Backstreet Boys as the follow-up to their fourth (third in the U.S.) studio album Black & Blue (2000), 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 differs musically from their previous albums, moving away from teen pop into pop rock tendencies. Unlike previous albums, it featured only live instruments. The album's title track mourns the loss of Kevin Richardson's father, Jerald, who is also Brian Littrell's uncle. It sold over 3 million copies worldwide. It was also the band's last studio album to feature their full original lineup with Kevin Richardson before his six year tenure hiatus from Backstreet Boys, which lasted from June 2006 to April 2012, who left the group to pursue on other interests until his return in 2012 (with the release of the band's 2013 album In A World Like This.)
In the 2000s, they took steps away from the Max Martin hitmaking sound that shot them to stardom, maturing with their fan base via adult contemporary pop on the reinventive Never Gone (2005), Unbreakable (2007), and This Is Us (2009)