No More Games/The Remix Album
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| New Kids on the Block | ||
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| Studio album by New Kids on the Block | ||
| Released | February 11, 1991 | |
| Recorded | 1988-1990 | |
| Genre | Remix | |
| Length | — | |
| Label | Columbia | |
| Producer(s) | Various | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| New Kids on the Block chronology | ||
| Step by Step (1990) |
No More Games: The Remix Album (1991) |
Face the Music (1994) |
No More Games/The Remix Album is the fifth album from teen pop act New Kids on the Block, and their first 'hits' compilation.
[edit] Synopsis
By early 1991, the ever shifting status of musical trends had begun to take its toll on the enormous popularity of the New Kids on the Block. Only two years before, the group had taken the U.S. (and the world) by storm with its seminal sophomore release, Hangin' Tough, and their wholesome and energetic teen-beat image. Then in June of 1990, the album Step by Step would spawn the group's biggest single, the title track. After the sonically impressive Beatle-esque "Tonight" cracked the top ten that fall, a backlash had become evident and hit singles weren't really happening like they had just the year before.
Sensing this, group member Donnie Wahlberg led the group in coordinating this remix album, which fused the "harder" elements of hip-hop and urban dance into the New Kids' sound, resulting in No More Games/The Remix Album — with a significant portion of the album remixed by Robert Clivilles and David Cole (of C+C Music Factory fame.) Also employed was a sly, though largely overlooked, marketing tactic to release the album under the 'NKOTB' acronym. Since the youngest group member was now eighteen years old, and the rest were in their early twenties, they had grown out of the New 'KIDS' On The Block moniker that they rose to fame with…more significantly, it was an attempt to slide out from under the stigma that was now attached to that name.
The album opens up with "Games (The New Kids Get Hard Mix)," a track co-written by Donnie Wahlberg, that originally appeared on the Step by Step album. Employing relatively convincing hip-hop samples, the jazziest riffs ever sung by Jordan Knight, and defensive rhymes by Mr. Wahlberg himself, "Games" was a dramatic departure from their previously clean cut sound. The song received decent airplay from stations nationwide, but didn't burn up the charts.
The albums second single, "Call It What You Want" is a well done house remix track, again produced by Clivilles/Cole, featuring an intro rap from Freedom Williams. The song was another that grabbed decent (though not enthusiastic) airplay in North America during the spring months of 1991, and can be considered the last hurrah in terms of singles from the groups initial run.
In the end, though No More Games/The Remix Album was certified Gold in the U.S., it still may have been too little, too late. It had become criminally uncool to be a New Kids fan by the time this album said its peace, as the pre-teens who had liked them at their peak were about to morph into angst-ridden "Generation-Xers" who would embrace the forthcoming grunge and gangsta rap sounds that snubbed late 80s/early 90s dance/pop.
[edit] Tracklisting
- Games (The Kids Get Hard Mix)
- Call It What You Want (The C&C Pump-It Mix)
- Please Don't Go Girl
- Cover Girl
- Baby, I Believe In You (The Love Mix)
- Hangin' Tough (In A Funky Way)
- Step by Step (The C&C Vocal Club Mix)
- My Favorite Girl
- Valentine Girl (The C&C Quiet Storm Mix)
- The Right Stuff (The New Kids In The House Mix)
- Whatcha Gonna Do (About It)
- Never Gonna Fall In Love Again (The C&C Music Factory Mix)
| New Kids on the Block |
| Jonathan Knight | Jordan Knight | Joe McIntyre | Danny Wood | Donnie Wahlberg |
| Production Crew |
|---|
| Producer: Maurice Starr |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: New Kids on the Block | Hangin' Tough | Merry, Merry Christmas | Step by Step | No More Games/The Remix Album | Face the Music | Greatest Hits | Super Hits |
| Singles: 1986: Be My Girl, Stop It Girl | 1988: Please Don't Go Girl, You Got It (The Right Stuff) | 1989: I'll Be Loving You (Forever), Hangin' Tough, Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time), Cover Girl, This One's for the Children, Funky Funky Xmas | 1990: My Favorite Girl, Step by Step, Valentine Girl, Tonight, Let's Try It Again, Games | 1991: Call It What You Want | 1992: If You Go Away | 1993: Dirty Dawg | 1994: Never Let You Go |
| Other Pages: |
| Related articles |
| Categories: New Kids on the Block | New Kids on the Block Songs |
