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That's A-N-C-H-O-R dot FM slash M-S-I-C-A-N-D-T-A-L-K.

A lot of spelling there, but just do it.

No home. No address. No address. No bank account. No bank account. No job. No job. No home. No address. No address. No bank account. No job. No home. It's time to break the vicious circle.

We're working with charities like shelter to provide a bank account for people who are

homeless. Such HSBCUK, no fixed address. Many fine songs don't make any sense. Are those songs

better than songs that do make sense? Is language just a construct? Is coherence just a burden? Are the best songs post-language?

Can songs be math? Can math be pop? Can math be art? Can math as art be sexy? Not sexy, but

you know, suggestive. Too many questions. I apologize. I withdraw those questions. I have just one question, which is,

Tell me why what. Tell me why. Ain't nothing but a mistake. Tell me why. To what does the why refer? I never want to hear you say that I want it that way. Who is the I in I want it that way? Is it me or is it you? What is the nature of that way? To what way does that way refer? How does a song that starts off by rhyming fire and desire descend so quickly into semantic chaos? And why do we find that chaos so purifying, so edifying, so satisfying? What makes I want it that way by the Backstreet Boys math and pop and art and

inarguably the single greatest boy band song ever born? The what is actually maybe a where.

It's Sweden, but really it's a who. It's Max Martin.

Believe when I say, I want it that way.

Believe when I say, not believe me when I say, that would throw off the meter. That would imbalance the equation.

That would fuck up the math. My name is Rob Harvilla. I'm a music critic at the Ringer, and this is 60 songs that explain the 90s. Today, we find ourselves in the spring of 1999. The sun is shining.

Y2K looms. We're all partying like it's the year. It actually is. And we're all basking in the baffling and dazzling sunlight. I want it that way.

It was written by Max Martin and Andreas Carlson, produced by Max Martin and Christian London,

and performed by the Backstreet Boys,

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