New Kids on the Block
The Block
Interscope
The Block is an album of distortion both visual and vocal. Joey, Jordan, Jonathon, Donnie and Danny are all grown up and the pull out poster of today’s New Kids (that’s more ironic than an Alanis Morissette hit from the 90s) has little trace of the five baby-faced teenage boys that left many a screaming pre-teen girl in their wake. Instead The New Kids of the new millennium are a combination of Ben Stiller gone wrong on steroids (Danny), a losing battle with crow’s feet (Joey) and soccer dad attempting to get down with the lingo (Donnie). And NKOTB fans nowadays are more likely to drive minivans full of preteens than actually be a preteen. As for The Block, the album has either been dragged over sandpaper before being released or been distorted by a maniacal music producer attempting to make the New Kids still seem new two decades on. That’s not to say the listen doesn’t have some merit, mostly in its ability to reduce fans to nostalgia for days of NKOTB-mania and the guest appearances of a number of musical celebrities, including Pussycat Dolls, New Edition and Timbaland, the latter proving that there is no musical act he will not whore himself out to. So, The Right Stuff? Not quite, but hell, I still heart Jordan.
Megan Smith
