New Backstreet Boys album "This Is Us,"

Backstreet Boys announced Tuesday that it will release its ninth album, "This Is Us," October 6.



The lead single, "Straight Through My Heart," has just been released to radio and can be heard on the group's MySpace page 


The 11-track Jive Records set follows the Backstreet Boys' platinum-certified 2005 reunion album, "Never Gone," and 2007's "Unbreakable," which sold 1.7 million copies worldwide but less than 150,000 in the U.S.


Group members Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McLean contributed to the writing and producing of "This Is Us," joined by original Backstreet Boys hitmaker Max Martin, T-Pain, RedOne, Soulshock & Karlin, Jim Jonsin and Claude Kelly.


"We always try to set the bar as high as possible," Dorough told Billboard.com. "We've always been a pop/R&B group. We focus our songs around good melodies and group harmonies, and hopefully that will have a lot of staying power."


Backstreet Boys has sold more than 76 million albums worldwide in the 12-plus years since the group debuted. And while the pop quartet is no longer the multiplatinum concern it was in the late '90s and early 2000s, Dorough said he and his groupmates remain confident about their place in the pop landscape.
This is us,

1. "Straight Through My Heart"
2. "Bigger"
3. "Bye Bye Love"
4. "All of Your Life (You Need Love)"
5. "If I Knew Then"
6. "This Is Us"
7. "PDA"
8. "Masquerade"
9. "She's a Dream"
10. "Shattered"
11. "Undone"