New Kids in their mid-50s: NKOTB are 'Still Kids' in new album

Long before NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and Take That ruled the earth, the New Kids On The Block were the apex boy band on much of the planet.

Teenagers screamed and wept wherever Donnie Wahlberg, brothers Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre and Danny Wood - NKOTB or just New Kids - burst onto the stage.

At the end of 80s, youth magazines featured posters of NKOTB almost weekly, while in the US, they topped the charts with smash hits like "I'll Be Loving You (Forever)", "Hangin' Tough" and "Step By Step".

But then the hits failed to materialize and the group dematerialized - disbanded - in 1994.

It wasn't until 2008 that they scored a highly acclaimed comeback and things have been coming up roses for them ever since.

In North America, New Kids On The Block confidently pack the big venues and even organized their own cruise with their fans. As much as anything, as mature males today, the forever youngsters from Dorchester, Massachusetts can still bust out those tight dance numbers, perfectly choreographed.

Meanwhile, they released two albums with new tracks, as well as the nostalgia-steeped single Bring Back The Time, featuring Rick Astley, Salt-n-Pepa and En Vogue.

And now, 11 years on, the quintet is again launching a full studio album with the telling title of... "Still Kids".

"And we're still just kids from a nobody town. Still just kids that are messing around," Joey McIntyre, who at 51 is the youngest band member, proclaims in the lead single "Kids".

In the music video, the five musicians from the Boston area jump and dance through various rooms of an ordinary apartment block, visibly fascinated - just like children.

Musically, the result is modern, danceable pop, slickly produced and as catchy as they come. Emotionally charged ballads on the verge of kitsch - or well above it - have always been part of the New Kids bedrock and are a must on the new album too.

However, "A Love Like This", with its synthesizers and guitar solo, is closer to the power ballads of 80s rock bands than boy band crooning.

Die-hard NKOTB fans, who are still predominantly but by no means exclusively female, will probably warm fast to the new offerings, as fresh listeners also seem to be doing.

One indicator was the exuberant response to the band's performance of Kids on the Kelly Clarkson Show two months ago. A comment under the video on YouTube shows how our heroes can still whip up shining old form and then grow beyond.

"54 year old man here. Was never a fan of them back in the day but this totally made me smile. Awesome to hear something simple, fun and just outright happy," wrote one very satisfied new fan on the block.