Jordan Knight Performs New Kids on the Block - The Remix Album

AMG Review of Jordan Knight Performs New Kids on the Block - The Remix Album

David Jeffries
All Music Guide

If you can't believe that major-label Columbia would give up their New Kids on the Block master tapes for this low-rent collection, your assumptions are right. Notice that the title reads Jordan Knight Performs and it starts to become obvious what this disc is all about. On the first disc Knight gives serviceable solo performances of the NKOTB songbook that get "remixed" on the second disc. If that's what you want, the collection is fine. Knight's voice is doing well, even if his delivery is a bit too mannered, and multitracking helps recreate the group's tight harmonies. Putting more of an R&B slant to the songs was a good idea since it trades old-school fist-pumping bombast for 2004's favored sexy swagger. Best example is Knight's take on the massive hit "Hangin' Tough," which is saved from disaster by keeping it low-key. Of course Knight still has to deliver the line "get on the floor and do the New Kids dance" and does so without a bit of irony or humor. That, and putting Performs in a font half the size of everything else on the cover, overshadows any of Knight's talents and charisma. The second disc of remixes is really just a collection of alternate mixes and an excuse to justify the "let's hope they misread it" title. The whole project is a move that sets Knight's career back ten spaces after a decent solo album. The guy can still deliver, but his handlers don't seem to have any concern for his reputation.