<strong>New Kids on the Block<br/></strong>10<br/>(Universal)<br/>** A lot of hype surrounded the comeback of New Kids on the Block with 2008's <em>The Block</em>, but let's face it: the album was a stinker. <span class="s2">Selling modestly on the back of a dedicated fan base, <em>The Block</em> was the sound of middle-aged men trying to recapture their teenage years with slightly embarrassing results.</span> <span class="s2">That said, the album did its job.</span> <span class="s2">It was a glorified business card announcing to the world that the boys were back and the resulting arena tours were well received.</span> <span class="s2">The waves of nostalgia generated in the tours seems to have seeped into the new album <em>10</em>.</span> <span class="s2">Mostly gone are the attempts to please the Beliebers and the One Direction-ites. Instead, the boys took some lessons from their British peers Take That by embracing their middle age and crafting a decent offering.</span> <span class="s2">Europop is the flavour of the day here.</span> <span class="s2">The tracks boast waves of creeping synths, spluttering beats and those trademark tight harmonies.</span> <span class="s2">The strutting lead single<em> Remix (I Like The)</em> is a welcome return to the sound of the 1980s, with each member getting his own vocal solo and a nice bit of melodic rap thrown in.</span> <span class="s2"><em>We Own the Night</em> is another dynamic offering, with the boys sounding reserved over one of the many strong beats supplied by the Danish production team Dee Kay.</span> <span class="s2"><em>Wasted on You</em> is another production highlight with wonderfully tempered melodies supplied by the producer Jess Cates.</span> <span class="s2">Donnie Wahlberg benefits the most here. The bad boy shows some regrets over rushing into a relationship that left him cold and bitter.</span> <span class="s2">The album’s bright start is sadly undone with a middle section full of clunky attempts to sound like what they deem as current. <em>Crash</em> is simply turgid. The Euro beats seemed to have been lifted off of a cheap Casio piano, with the vocals auto-tuned beyond recognition.</span> <span class="s2"><em>The Whisper </em>sounds like the boys couldn’t afford a tune by David Guetta so instead, they copied one without any of the earworm hooks of the Frenchman.</span> <span class="s2">It is also here that the sub-par lyrics of the album begin to grate.</span> <span class="s2">They are bad enough to warrant a game of guessing which cliché or lazy juxtaposition comes next.</span> <span class="s2">In <em>The Whisper</em>, the lads exclaim how “the whisper has never been so loud”, while in <em>Wasted On You</em>, the femme fatal was “the oxygen I breathe, running through my veins”.</span> <span class="s2">Fortunately, the vocal-driven final track <em>Surviving You</em> wraps things up by reminding us of the group’s essence: four Boston boys with some beautiful harmonies.</span> <span class="s2">This should be the starting point for the next album.</span> <span class="s4"><strong><a href="mailto:sasaeed@thenational.ae">sasaeed@thenational.ae</a></strong></span> Follow us Follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thenationalArtsandLife">Facebook</a> for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.