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Jordan Knight
Jordan Knight
Universal/Interscope

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the elevator... a young Richard Marks in the making.

Whilst we struggle to swallow the endless glut of boy-bands, Jordan Knight, one fifth of the original US teen-sensation New Kids On The Block, surfaces for a nostalgic taste of the cream. The New Kids, as they were later abbreviated, filled the late Eighties and early Nineties with an assortment of over-sweetened pop hits, causing girls to fall about en-masse. As so often is the case, success changes guileless young men and soon all popularity is lost in a decedent spiral of womanising and disorderly activities.

In terms of commercial success Jordan Knight’s first single, ‘Give It to You’ proves that he is certainly back on the block, with his past firmly behind him. However, this achievement is largely down to the production and composition deities from Minneapolis, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis – the duo with almost two decades worth of hit-making credentials in the bag. The track is equipped with quintessential Jam & Lewis: insidious bass-line, notably tight beats and catchy alternating synth and vocal scales. A Missy Elliot-style bumping rhythm section and unusual harpsichord breakdowns provides the contemporary element and give character where Knight’s insubstantial vocal fails.

Knight’s debut contains a further three Jam & Lewis co-written tracks which rescue the album from the mire, even though they are certainly not classics. The ballad ‘Broken By You’ treads old ground for Jam & Lewis and sounds like something Janet Jackson could have performed with more gusto. In the end not even this magnificent pair can lift Jordan Knight’s uninteresting delivery and teenybopper lyrics.

Still in a Minneapolis vain, Jordan bravely attempts Prince’s ‘I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man’, with dismal results. The pace of the piece is slowed sufficiently to enable Jordan to layer it with inordinate quantities of cheddar thus turning this tune from rock-blues gem into pop-ballad bilge.

Though, on the positive side Jordan does offer a little of his personality on one of the self-penned tunes, ‘Finally Finding Out’, detailing his recent change from reckless teenager to upstanding adult. From the piano intro, early 90’s dance beat and innocuous melodies and vocal akin to a young Richard Marx, it is evident that Knight is far from promoting any creative hysteria here, but his heart is in the right place. Fellow former New-Kid, Donnie Wahlberg, offers a suggestion of uniqueness with his production, ‘Turn Your Back’; a mixture of guitar-based rock and hip-hop, albeit pop-smothered.

Despite valiant efforts from Jam & Lewis and the man himself, Jordan Knight’s debut is too busy lazing in the past to bear the weight of current criticism. Having made an album full of suitable pop-soul fodder for the US Billboard Chart a maternal America will surely support one of their own New Kids. Though, it is doubtful whether listeners on this side of the Atlantic will take any old kid into their blocks. **

Martin New

Tue Nov 23 1999 16:04 GMT