*NSYNC: No Strings Attached (picture disc) [LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary picture disc puts the album's art right on the vinyl. No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million copies in its first week in the US, a record that stood for 15 years, and it was the best-selling album of 2000.

This edition

• Picture disc
• 20th anniversary edition

About the album

The title says it all. Having parted ways with their old management and label, *NSYNC named their third album after the freedom of doing things their own way, and put themselves on the cover as marionettes to make the point. They also leaned into pop and R&B to set themselves apart from the rest of the boy band pack.

"Bye Bye Bye" kicked off the whole frenzy with its stabbing strings and that famous puppet-string dance routine, and "It's Gonna Be Me" climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. "This I Promise You," written by Richard Marx, is the big ballad, while "Space Cowboy (Yippie-Yi-Yay)" and "Digital Get Down" show off the R&B side. Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez stepped into production alongside Kristian Lundin, Rami, Teddy Riley, Kevin "She'kspere" Briggs and Babyface.

The No Strings Attached Tour was the second-highest-grossing tour in North America that year, and the album is still seen as the high point of the teen pop era. The strings on the cover were cut, but the dance moves remain firmly attached to anyone who was twelve in 2000.

Also at Kops: more *NSYNC on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Jive / Legacy (cat# 19439753201S1), a reissue of the 2000 album.