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NEW YORK : They are no longer kids, neither are they new but hit '80s boy band New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) want you to know they've still got the "right stuff".
After stepping out of the limelight for more than a decade, the boy band have reunited with a new album which was released in the United States on Tuesday.
Titled "The Block", Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood said the lucrative reunions of groups like The Police and The Spice Girls had nothing to do with them getting back together.
"It was just the right timing for us," said McIntyre, the youngest member of the group.
The Boston boys went their separate ways 15 years ago to get some perspective, "We had people taking care of every little thing we wanted to do," said Wahlberg, who is the elder brother of Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg. "We just needed time away... I think the fans needed time away too."
The time apart has certainly done them good. The first single off their fifth studio album, "Summertime", peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after it was released in May and The Los Angeles Times reported in an early review of the album that there was a "surprising strength in most of the material" and that "believe it or not, they've got the right stuff."
Their fans seem to think so too. In May, some 4,000 hysterical gathered at the "Today" show’s plaza in New York on a rainy morning just to catch the band’s first performance together since their split.
The New Kids are confident that their comeback will not only be a success but will eclipse the recent efforts of the Backstreet Boys who were once the top-selling boy band of all time. The group have taken several breaks from the music scene throughout their career, and each time their return has failed to replicate the success of their heyday in the 1990s.
"Backstreet's records sound the same as before - their music didn't evolve like ours has,” said Wood.
For "The Block," the group worked with artistes like Timbaland, Akon, Ne-Yo and the Pussycat Dolls, to produce some “dance driven” tracks.
"Lyrically it's very reflective of who we are now," McIntyre said. "We're grown men in relationships, complicated relationships, there's ups and downs and we're all in different places in our lives."
NKOTB were still teenagers when they released their debut self-titled album in 1986. They sold more than 70 million albums, with hits including "You Got It (The Right Stuff)", "Hangin' Tough" and "I'll Be Loving You," before breaking up in the mid-1990s.
- CNA/il
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