Freak369's Full Review: Step by Step by New Kids On The Block
New Kids on The Block swept the world with their ultra sweet bubble gum pop sound for the better part of four years. They had a massive marketing empire that included lunch boxes, trading cards, a cartoon series, actions figures complete with working concert stage and even scented bubble bath. It seemed that no matter where you looked, there was one of the bad boys of Dorchester. Holding true to the old saying that “all good things must come to an end”, the group slowly lost a grip on the pre-teen market when the fans graduated to a more sophisticated sound. Being a fan of the group was never easy since I was at least ten years older than everyone else that would be lined up to purchase the new CD’s or wait for tickets. While I did have a few friends that were also into the music of the group, they weren’t brave enough to openly admit it. Oh the things people will admit when they can’t be seen…
Some people feel the need to compare the group to NSync, The Beatles and the Jackson 5 – not on a musical level – but on the teen appeal and mass hysteria level. It’s an amazing yet rather unsettling fact that New Kids make more money from the sales of their assorted paraphernalia than they did from their record sales. Love them or hate them, they are part of musical history. They broke record sales, had a huge team of family members working for their fan club and basically grew up in front of the whole world. When you consider some of the things that they could have done or some of the trouble they could have gotten into – their off stage antics seem rather tame – especially when compared to what groups are doing [and getting into] these days.
The Music
They rarely played instruments on sage or in the studio, most of their songs were written for them when they first started out and they were hand picked by their former manager [Maurice Starr] – so with all these image killers against them – what made them the pop icons that they were? A slick image, cheesy pop love songs and five cute guys that would more than likely appeal to a majority of the pre-teen and teenage girls. It wasn’t until the boys started to realize that they were puppets and ditched Starr that they stared to take a hands on approach to their music. They participated more in the development of songs and music, worked behind the scenes to produce the tracks and put an end to the chump change marketing and went after the bigger fish like Pepsi who sponsored their 1990 Magical Summer Tour.
This release had some very powerful and popular tracks that helped to keep the New Kids name fresh on the lips of fans [of all ages]. Step By Step, Tonight and Games were among the most popular tracks and were accompanied by videos that saw heavy airplay on MTV. I wonder how these would fair on TRL [Total Request Live] – if the teen-age girls would bombard the phone lines and vote for their beloved New Kids. Even though all three of these songs are different they have one common denominator – a heavy lathering of pop appeal. Games went on to get remixed with a much harder edge and extended rap vocals [courtesy of Donnie] on the groups No More Game Remix release. The song is an in your face slap back at critics that repeatedly criticized the group for their pop music, screaming fans and lack of talent. Step By Step and Tonight are both ‘fan favorites’ that always drove the girls crazy in concert. Looking back I have to admit that when the tracks were released they were great … but the fire has cooled a little over the years.
Take a stand, man, like never before, and I'm sure
That we'll endure so now it's time to even the score
I hear you knocking me but you ain't shocking me
Cause jealousy is telling me that you're just jockin’ me
Call It What You Want enjoyed a lot of airplay on both the pop and dance charts. There are about eight different versions of this song and if you have ever heard any of the remixes you’ll look at the studio version and laugh. The music is so sugary sweet and squeaky clean that it really takes away from the song as a whole. Never Gonna Fall In Love Again was one of the few tracks by the group that got positive criticism from the music community – and part of that was due to the club remixes that seemed to multiply on a monthly basis. It didn’t hurt that C & C Music Factory helped to pump up the beats on the remixes even if they didn’t get the true credit that they deserved.
Doing a complete 180 - Stay With Me Baby attempts to blend some rasta beats with a pop beat – what you end up with is a pretty tacky and possibly offensive song that Donnie was extremely proud of when it was picked for the CD and released upon the masses. Donnie might have been my favorite New Kid but that doesn’t mean that I had to automatically like everything that he did within the group. This sounds more like something that would have been on the self titled debut release along with Stop It Girl and Popsicle.
Happy Birthday was a completely unnecessary track that is nothing more than filler material. Jordan’s vocals seem mismatched to the musical style [50’s slow doo-wop] and as much as I hate to say it – this song needs to be erased from the New Kids discography. Teetering on the pass or fail line is Joey’s contribution to the CD Where Do I Go From Here that could be considered a complete failure by some and a stellar track by others. The bottom line is this – there just isn’t enough meat to the song – lyrically, vocally or musically.
The Tracks
Step By Step
Tonight
Baby I Believe In You
Call It What You Want
Let's Try It Again
Happy Birthday
Games
Time Is on Our Side
Where Do I Go From Here?
Stay With Me Baby
Funny Feeling
Never Gonna Fall In Love Again
The Music ... Part II
There are three “power ballads” on this release and all of them rely on strong vocals [mostly from Jordan], cheesy songwriting and the tried and true ‘reach out to the fans’ concept. Baby I Believe In You is one of the best slow songs that the group ever put out and serves up a very nice slice of Jordan’s vocal abilities. The music for this track is a little more refined from the rest of the songs on this CD – and speaking of the music – it has a nice blues feel too it without it sounds like its trying too hard to break out of the pop love song mold. Let’s Try It Again manages to capture a lot of the old school Stylistics flair thanks to Jordan’s falsetto additions to the track. While this isn’t one of my all time favorite songs from the group, it should be considered a “must listen” track to hear Jordan’s exceptional range. Time Is on Our Side never really appealed to me due to the generic sound of the music and the prim and proper style of the vocals. The lyrics had a lot of potential but the delivery just flat out sucked.
The Bottom Line
Some people consider this the CD that got the band over the bubble gum pop title, others insist that it’s just the same old music with an elevated beat. What do I think about it? It’s New Kids through and through. If you liked the music when it was first released and don’t have this in your collection, you might want to pick it up and relive some old memories. Fans of today’s boy bands that have never indulged in the NKOTB phenomenon might want to check out some of these tracks and take a gander at the videos to see where some of these groups got their moves and sounds. That’s not to say that the boy groups of today ripped off the signature sounds or dance moves – but there sure are a hell of a lot of similarities.
Stats
Run Time: 52:12
Number of Tracks: 12
Release Date: May 12, 1990
Released Under: Columbia
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