Around the block a few more times

02:02 PM PDT on Thursday, July 2, 2009

By ALAN SCULLEY
Special to The Press-Enterprise

Say what you will about the idea of New Kids On The Block, the group that essentially paved the way for the current teen pop phenomenon, reuniting when its members are all 40 or nearing that age.

But at least in reuniting, the group made a new CD, "The Block," and it reflects the fact that these guys aren't so new and definitely not kids anymore.

"Click Click Click," the opening song on the CD, immediately sends the message that these aren't the innocent New Kids of old, as the guys playfully sing about inviting a girl to take off her clothes and pose for photos.

"It's just natural," Joey McIntyre said of the more adult-themed material on "The Block." "That's what music is about, is exploring who you are as a person now. And we're grown men.

"Whether we're married or not, we're in complex relationships and consequences are different now. And I think we wrote about those. We wrote about the good times and the tough times and the harder times on this album. It just makes for a more textured piece of work, and it's been fun to do that. It just feels authentic."

Of course, this still leaves the question of just how authentic it feels to see these grown men on stage singing the light romantic tunes that made up their repertoire in the late 1980s, when the New Kids drove their mostly female audience to screams.

It appears a lot of people have no problem seeing the New Kids mix the innocuous songs of their youth with the more mature music of "The Block."

The group's first tour last fall was an all-out success, as was another run of dates this spring.

Now the New Kids -- McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight, Joe Knight and Danny Wood -- are playing large outdoor amphitheaters this summer, bringing what McIntyre said is a new production to these venues.

"We've got a brand new stage, really exciting video elements and a whole new look, which is really cool," said McIntyre, who called in for an interview.

"And there are a bunch of new songs that we're doing, kind of switching up some of the newer songs from our new album. Of course, we're playing all of the old hits. We've got to play all the old hits. We're lucky that we have hits to play, so we're doing that.

"But we always want to keep it fresh and exciting because that way it's exciting for us. If it gets stale for us, we know it's going to feel that way for the audience."

http://www.pe.com/music/stories/PE_News_Local_S_newkids03.1f40fe8.html

*nkotbgirl.from.peru*