Backstreet Boys settled into a comfortable middle age, so perhaps that's why the steady disco pulse of Howie D's belated 2011 solo debut
Back to Me comes as a bit of a surprise. Ditching ballads almost entirely -- when he does flirt with the slow stuff, he drapes them in chilly synthesizers borrowed from
Ryan Tedder -- Howie D balances insistent dance club anthems and shimmering cool-down pop tunes throughout his record.
Back to Me doesn't necessarily sound contemporary -- Howie has cobbled this together from sounds from the past decade or more -- but it does have a semblance of style along with some prominent hooks that make it a livelier record than many post-reunion
BSB platters. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine