Backstreet Boys — “Shape Of My Heart”

A few words on a completely underrated and brilliant pop song, drawn from the minds behind the Cheiron Studio together with Lisa Miskovsky.

Backstreet Boys. The band name evokes polarised sentiments. Regardless of where you are on that scale, you have most likely sang along to their songs, or at least hummed.

This song is the lead single from the group’s fourth album, “Black & Blue”. Penned by Max Martin, Rami Yacoub and co-written by Lisa Miskovsky. The song contains all of the mandatory elements that, in the year 2000, made this a true Cheiron track: simple chords, a key signature change, a flat yet harmonious chorus and extreme catchiness that enters all parts of the song: guitar, synths, voices.

Try avoiding to look at the cover of the single, the members’ looks in the video, and you’re fine.

The lyrics build from a single four-line verse where the first-person begs forgiveness, toward an emotional self-incrimination, perhaps self-realisation and subsequent release:

Baby, please try to forgive me
Stay here, don’t put out the glow
Hold me now, don’t bother, if every minute it makes me weaker
You can save me from the man that I’ve become, oh yeah

Lookin’ back on the things I’ve done
I was tryin’ to be someone
I played my part, kept you in the dark
Now let me show you the shape of my heart

Towards the end of the song, at the 02:12 mark, Nick Carter starts crooning his pain out while the song is stripped of most instruments:

I’m here with my confession
Got nothing to hide no more
I don’t know where to start
But to show you the shape of my heart

However, this is just a clever ruse that leads up to the best part of the song, the Cheironic bliss of the ultra-climax at the 02:37 mark, where the key change, synths, and harmonies where all of the guys join in the singing— “I’m looking back/on things I’ve done” — nails the real triumph of this song, as noted by the top-10 chart positions across the globe, not to mention holding the record-breaking two-month top position at MTV’s “Total Request Live”, and being included in Backstreet Boys first greatest hits compilation.

This song lasts, mainly due to the melodies and the song as a whole, despite some dodgy lyrics; try playing the song on acoustic guitar and you will realise it has Brill Building qualities.

Trivia 1: Peter Svensson from The Cardigans plays guitar on this track.
Trivia 2: this track is recorded both in the Cheiron Studios and in the Polar Studios, the latter of which was home to ABBA.
Trivia 3: the group often played this a capella version during live shows.