Never Gone is the fifth studio album released by American vocal group Backstreet Boys as the follow-up to their fourth 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.

Background

The Never Gone Tour commenced soon after the album's release. On December 20, 2005, the group released the DVD Never Gone: The Videos, which included behind-the-scenes footage and the music videos for "Incomplete," "Just Want You to Know," and "I Still...". The DVD consists of a slideshow with the instrumental audio of "Just Want You to Know" and an interview in Germany regarding their upcoming tour.

Singles

The singles released from Never Gone were "Incomplete", "Just Want You to Know", "Crawling Back to You" and "I Still...". Following the success of the first single, "Incomplete," which peaked at No. 13 and spent 20 weeks on U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the second single, "Just Want You to Know," performed moderately well, hitting the top ten in the UK and Spain, and reaching the top twenty in Italy, Germany and Ireland, and charting inside the top 40 in most other charts.

Critical reception

Critical response to Never Gone was generally mixed to negative, with most critics ambivalent about changing the band's traditional pop style to a more mature adult contemporary sound. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 40, based on seven reviews.

Commercial performance

Never Gone debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200, selling 293,000 copies in its first week of release. This is the band's fifth consecutive top ten album on the chart, following The Hits – Chapter One in 2001. On July 14, 2005, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for selling over a million copies in the United States. In Japan, it was the second biggest Western album in 2005 and had sold more than 750,000 copies by January 2006. And certificated Gold and Platinum record at 11 different countries. The album sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from album’s liner notes. Backstreet Boys Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications