Backstreet Boys’ “Breathe”: Hear The ‘Drive’-Inspired Track

Ahead of the July 30 release of their comeback album In A World Like This, Backstreet Boys have premiered another new track. (They’ve tossed out a decent amount of new material in recent days, but they’re nowhere near Robin Thicke‘s level of pre-release premieres.) “Breathe,” the latest song, comes from an unlikely source of inspiration: the grisly, stylish Ryan Gosling vehicle Drive.

Howie Dorough told Billboard, “A.J. [McLean] was watching the movie ‘Drive,’ and the music kind of has that dark, mysterious feel to it […] He came to me, and I had just recently seen that movie, and I loved the idea. He started off with the melody for the chorus, and then I came to him and started putting feeling into the words… It’s a great song.”

The song was co-written by Martin Terefe. Hear it below, courtesy of Billboard.

Backstreet Boys — “Breathe”

It’s a bit of a stretch to say this is sonically related to Drive (and is in a different universe thematically), but the verses do have a hushed synth throb underpinning them so you can see where the foundation of the song began. Otherwise, the song swells with strings and an uplifting melody. We’re not saying BSB missed the mark — we’re just saying they couldn’t resist using the initial Drive idea as a jumping off point to do what they do best.