Someone at Sony Music Entertainment decided that it was time to make a few bazillion extra dollars this week by releasing a so-called new NSync album that features what folks in the biz refer to as rarities and alternate versions of the boy band’s popular songs. “The Essential” still features the group’s biggest hits like “Bye Bye Bye” and “It’s Gonna Be Me,” in case you’re the kind of fan that tossed all of your old CDs out and, for lack of a better phrase, want them back, but if you wanted to hear Justin Timberlake and Co. screeching out “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Christopher Cross’s “Sailing” on the same two-disc set, then this is the collection for you. And obviously a lot of people are digging “The Essential,” because Amazon is already sold out.
That’s actually a really remarkable feat considering the band’s members didn’t even do any promotional work since they probably didn’t know about it. In fact, Lance Bass Tweeted yesterday that he had no clue a new album was being released.
Wow Lance, what did the good, kind people at the music label ever do to you? As for the track list on “The Essential,” in case you’re on the fence about picking it up…
Disc 1
1. Here We Go (Radio Cut)
2. I Want You Back (Radio Edit)
3. Tearin’ Up My Heart (Original Radio Edit)
4. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You (Remix)
5. Thinking Of You (I Drive Myself Crazy)
6. For The Girl Who Has Everything (Radio Mix)
7. Are You Gonna Be There
8. Music Of My Heart – Featuring Gloria Estefan
9. Bye Bye Bye
10. It’s Gonna Be Me
11. This I Promise You (Radio Edit)
12. I Thought She Knew
13. I Believe In You – Featuring Joe
14. If I’m Not The One
15. Pop (Radio Version)
16. Girlfriend (The Neptunes Remix) – Featuring Nelly
17. GoneDisc 2
1. More Than A Feeling
2. Best Of My Life
3. The Lion Sleeps Tonight
4. Sailing
5. Everything I Own
6. God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You – Featuring Alabama
7. Somewhere Someday
8. Trashin’ The Camp – Featuring Phil Collins
9. If Only In Heaven’s Eyes
10. You Don’t Have To Be Alone
11. On The Line – Featuring The On The Line All-Stars / Lance Bass / Joey Fatone / Mandy Moore / Christian Burns & True Vibe
12. That Girl (Will Never Be Mine)
13. Falling
14. Feel The Love
15. Selfish
16. See Right Through You
17. Believe In Yourself (TV Version – Sesame Street)
The real gem of this bunch, if you’ve never had the pleasure of listening to it before, is “Trashin’ the Camp,” which featured NSync and Phil Collins teaming up for the Tarzan soundtrack, and it was the kind of skit-skatting and a-beboppin’ all over the place that would have made Terrence Howard wish he’d worn his finest hat.
