New Kids On The Block: Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, Donnie Wahlberg, Jonathan Knight (vocals).
Additional personnel: Freedom Williams (rap vocals).
Producers: Maurice Starr, Walter Afanasieff, New Kids On The Block, Michael Jonzun.
Compilation producer: Al Quaglieri.
Personnel: Freedom Williams (rap vocals).
Audio Remixers: David Cole; Robert Clivillés.
Arranger: Maurice Starr.
In the second half of the 1980s, the New Kids on the Block were the ultimate teen idols, taking the pop charts by storm and starting a whole wave of boy bands. GREATEST HITS brings together their finest moments, and reveals just how seamless the group's mix of cotton-candy pop hooks, R&B-influenced vocal delivery, hip-hop-inflected grooves, and bad-boy rock-star attitude really was, from the forceful rap-meets-rock "Hangin' Tough" to the pleading, romantic balladry of "Please Don't Go Girl."
If Greatest Hits doesn't seem as fun as it should be, that's because the New Kids on the Block's material has dated, even though it, in many ways, set the template for the teen pop of the late '90s/early 2000s. Max Martin used Maurice Starr's formula, but he writes better songs -- only "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)" and "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" stand the test of time as good pop singles, but the rest are pretty much triumphs of recording and the form. Also, the sequencing doesn't play to their strengths, failing to gain much momentum as it plays. This still is recommended as the first pick, since it does have all of NKOTB's hits on one disc, but it's still sort of a shock that this doesn't play as trashy fun, the way it does in memory -- or the way Milli Vanilli's music now does. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize