The Backstreet Boys are back - again - celebrating the 10th anniversary of the release of their first album in America.

The only surviving "boy band" from the late-'90s heyday of that genre, the group has reunited for a second time and created a more mature sound for its fifth studio album, Unbreakable, in stores Tuesday.

The former quintet has lost its oldest member, singer-pianist Kevin Richardson, 36, who opted out to spend time with his wife and baby boy.

Two members of the 2007 quartet have passed age 30 (Howie Dorough, 34, and Brian Littrell, 32) and two have yet to hit the milestone (AJ McLean, 29, and Nick Carter, 27) that seems so ancient to the teenyboppers who were Backstreet's core audience.

Littrell is also a husband and father, Dorough is engaged, McLean has successfully completed drug rehab and Carter remains the "baby" who weathered his own storm, a 2004 relationship with Paris Hilton.

Despite the passage of time and the ups and downs of the adult world, the bandmates sound re-energized and relaxed as they prepare to tour the world in support of Unbreakable.

"We are born entertainers. We're hams; we love the attention," Littrell told reporters on a recent conference call.

Dorough added, "During the downtime that we had . . . especially coming off the accelerated pace that we all were in back at the height of everything . . . I think everybody can say there's an itch within you to want to do something."

It's not that they twiddled their thumbs in the two breaks they've taken since their popularity peaked with 2000's Black & Blue album, which sold a stunning 1.5 million copies in its first week of release. (The band claims 75 million in total worldwide sales.)

Carter released a rock-flavored solo CD, 2002's Now or Never, and starred in a 2006 E! channel reality series, House of Carters. Littrell has become a successful contemporary-Christian artist, scoring a No. 1 hit single on his debut solo album, Welcome Home.

Dorough established the Dorough Lupus Foundation to honor his sister, who died of the disease in 1998, and to raise funds for a cure. McLean occasionally performs solo in rock clubs and is active in charity work.

But it seemed evident at the band's last reunion show in the Valley, in 2005, that making music together remains a favorite activity.

"What you saw in Phoenix is a kind of rekindling of the fire, because it is in our blood," Littrell said. "I think over the years, as we've grown together, we've learned to value one another."

The four know the value of the lush harmonies that took them to stardom with such songs as I Want It That Way, As Long As You Love Me and Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely, and they dial them in throughout their new album.

But the CD also features much more solo singing than before, with the group joining in on choruses.

"We decided to go a little bit more organic and strip down (with) a whole lot less harmonies and more of a pop-rock realm," McLean said.

The album's first single, a midtempo power ballad called Inconsolable, shows the new subtle rock edge that much of the album has taken on.

The singers don't bust out any of their famous dance moves in the video for Inconsolable (which can be viewed at thebackstreetboys.com). But Carter said tour rehearsals find the group "dancing . . . like we've never danced before." (U.S. tour dates remain to be set.)

The only difference onstage, Littrell added, is needing to "get through the soreness first, before we can hopefully look good. Take some Advil."

The Backstreet Boys know they'll never regain the arena-filling power of their heyday - they played for 5,000 at Phoenix's Dodge Theatre in 2005 - but they sound happy to be back in the game. They're all multimillionaires and certainly don't have to be recording and performing.

"It's really kind of refreshing to still be doing this and to have a whole new outlook on our careers," McLean said.

"We're hoping to stick around for another 15 years, and then another 15 after that."
Reach the reporter at larry.rodgers@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8043.

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