After jumping on Kelly Clarkson's power-pop-with-a-hint-of-rock bandwagon for 2005's Never Gone, history's biggest-selling boyband promised a return to "the classic Backstreet sound" for Unbreakable, their sixth studio album. Sadly, they appear to have been telling porkies. Lead single 'Inconsolable' finds Nick Carter and co sticking doggedly to the middle of the road like your nan's Metro on a motorway trip to the seaside.

Though its choruses reach for the key change in just the right places, its lyrics are suitably lovelorn ("I try to sleep, but the clock is stuck on thoughts of you"), and the quartet's harmonies are as slick and seamless as ever, 'Inconsolable' lacks the gooey pleasure of classic Backstreet ballads. Like that chocolate cake you took out of the oven just a minute too soon, it’s failed to capitalise on its perfectly-mixed ingredients.