New Kids on the Block

Ladies and gentlemen-although given the New Kids on the Block's historical fanbase, it's probably mostly "ladies" we're talking to here. The day you've long been waiting for has finally arrived. NKOTB return with their first album of new material in what feels like eons! Gone are the teen-friendly, PG-rated romps about "Hangin' Tough" that defined their massive heyday. They've been replaced by a rightfully more mature, supremely slick R&B style. Given that key members Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre enjoyed successful, post-NKOTB careers as singers and performers of well-lubed, glossy R&B, it was a smart, carefully calculated move that should yield impressive dividends. Most of the girls who loved NKOTB in their 1989 prime have grown up to be women and because of the sonic maturation on this offering, it's likely that the former NKTOB fans will follow Jordan, Joey and crew through hell. Or maybe just to reunion concerts!

The Block is a millennial update of the band that wrote the blueprint for the boy band model that dominated the late '90s, a la *Nsync . The NKOTB, V 2.0 songs consist of styled, inorganic beats, a drizzling of rap parts and loads upon loads of vocal harmonies, with the falsetto of Knight asserting itself from the first song all the way through the final outro. McIntyre's voice is obviously the other standout, his deeper pipes existing as a more than competent complement to Knight's croon.

Most of the songs are suitable for the bedroom. There's the sexified, frolic number "Dirty Dancing," where the band doesn't hesitate to drop a lyrical reference to Patrick Swayze. "Click Click Click" and "Don't Cry" sways with hip-shaking ease and studio-treated vocals, which is surprising and unnecessary, since the guys' voices are strong enough to stand on their own without the aid of computer tools and rigs! "Sexify My Love," will earn status as a clubby, couples anthem that will cause the twentysomethings to get their freak on and demonstrate their exhibitionist tendencies by rubbing up against on another on too-crowded dance floors, while "Looking Like Danger" pulses and quickens like there's no tomorrow. "One Song" is the closest thing that resembles rock music on Block. Clearly, NKOTB know how to mix it up within the space of an album.

In perhaps an attempt to gain some cred from the tougher-edged urban world, the band invited Akon and Lady GaGa to drop by for vocal guest appearances. The Kids did the right thing by updating their sound for the modern pop music audience and taking tips from the R&B world by aligning themselves with what's going on currently. It'll ensure a sustained career. So let's hope Block isn't just a one-off.

— Amy Sciarretto
09.03.08

The problem facing New Kids on the Block on their 2008 reunion The Block is the same one they had on their last album, 1994's Face the Music: the quintet are no longer kids and don't quite know how to be adults. That dilemma drove them apart back in 1994, as the group stumbled away from their clumsy stab at hip-hop on Face the Music, remembered chiefly for embarrassments like "Dirty Dawg" where the boys tried to be gangsta, as that was the style of the time. Fourteen years later, NKOTB are none the wiser, restyling themselves to fit into current trends and piling on guest artists by the dozens. Coming off the heels of the astounding multi-platinum success of Hangin' Tough and Step by Step, such desperate attempts to hang onto stardom made sense in 1994, but now that all the members save Joey McIntyre are pushing 40, it's awkward to hear the group abandon sprightly bubblegum for youthful rhythm-driven club music. At their peak, NKOTB only sang about puppy love -- how could they not, as their fans were almost entirely preteens too young to hear sticky songs of seduction, the kind that comprise the entirety of The Block. Two of these are pitched directly at those older fans -- "Big Girl Now," where the Kids sing to Lady GaGa about what they can finally do now that they're all growed up, and "Grown Man," where they sing pretty much the same thing with the Pussycat Dolls. They also turn an homage to "Dirty Dancing" into a bump and grind that is far, far from the innocence of the Patrick Swayze original, or the New Kids music, for that matter. Draped in washes of chilly analog synths straight out of Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds, Autotune inspired by Akon (who appears on the barroom pickup anthem "Put It on My Tab"), chanting choruses, and brittle, skittish rhythms, The Block sounds nothing like the New Kids, nor does it feel like them, either. [The CD was also released with bonus tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide