Almost ten years after his solo debut, Nick Carter finally got around to releasing a second album in 2011. I’m Taking Off is something of a misleading title: if Carter’s career outside the Backstreet Boys was going to take off, it would have by 2011. Instead, he’s resigned to riding a wave created by Ryan Tedder, doing his best to turn I’m Taking Off into a slightly warmer OneRepublic album, thawing the chilly synthesizers but retaining the same glazed blend of R&B beats and soft rock melodies. Carter is better when the tempered glass cracks a little bit, when he dips into a Michael Jackson tribute (“Special”) or when the song’s melodic thrust overshadows the production, but those moments don’t arrive all that often on I’m Taking Off. Usually, it’s all about those shimmering steely sounds, sounds that would have seemed modern a few years ago but now seem just past their sell-by date…which may be why the album popped up in Japan first.