Happy 20th anniversary, Millennium! I can’t believe it’s actually been that long. Millennium came out as I was about to graduate from eighth grade; I remember playing it on repeat on my Discman on the bus the whole way to Six Flags and back for my eighth grade class trip.
I will never forget May 18, 1999. Millennium was the first BSB album I got to enjoy the anticipation of looking forward to, as I hadn’t been a fan yet when their previous albums were released. I had pre-ordered it at Sam Goody at the mall, and since my dad managed a different store at the mall, he offered to pick it up for me on his way home from work that afternoon. I came home from school, so excited, and anxiously waited for him to get home. When I heard his car pulling into the garage, I raced to the back door and was standing right there, like a dog, when he opened it. He teased me at first, acting flattered that I was so excited to see him and then pretending to have forgotten to pick up my CD. But, of course, he hadn’t forgotten at all. When he handed it to me, I rushed to my bedroom and ripped it out of its packaging as quickly as I could. I put it in my CD player, pressed play, and sat on my bed to listen to each track in order as I turned the pages of the liner notes, looking at all of the beautiful photos of the Boys and reading the lyrics. It was impossible to pick a favorite song on that first listen because they were all so good! Of course I was already obsessed with “I Want It That Way,” but I quickly fell in love with the rest, from the catchiness of “Larger Than Life” to the sweetness of “The Perfect Fan”, which my beloved Brian wrote for his mom, and everything in between. It took a few months for “Don’t Wanna Lose You Now” to emerge as a standout for me, probably after my first time reading the fanfic classic Where Can We Go From Here, in which the Boys sing that song around Nick’s hospital bed as he lays in a coma. It’s been my favorite BSB song ever since, and Millennium is still every bit as amazing as it was on that first listen. Along with In a World Like This, it’s my favorite BSB album, and I don’t imagine it will ever be unseated at this point. Here’s to twenty years of Millennium!
Now that my little tribute is out of the way, I do have a fanfic update as well! Speaking of hospital beds and comas… Chapter 15 of A Heart That Isn’t Mine is up. Enjoy!