Almost by definition, boy bands don’t age well. The older the groups get, the harder it is to recapture the magic of when they were at their prime, capturing the hearts of the country and helping define the sound of the era’s popular music. The trick of how to stay relevant, contemporary or interesting as a boy band approaches middle age is one that countless such groups have struggled with over the years—and one which New Kids on the Block, one of the longest-running male vocal group phenoms still making music (and who released their new album 10 today), tackle in a rather clever way with their new single, “Remix (I Like The).”

The song’s title, which also comprises the entirety of the songs hook, is one of the year’s most intriguing you’ll see in passing this year, posing far more questions about the song it represents than it answers. Is it a song about dance music appreciation? Is it supposed to be a remix of itself, with the “original” version still to come? Or is it just a remix of one of their older songs, with the parenthetical and the non-parenthetical parts of the title reversed? Even if you don’t care about the song or about NKOTB themselves, you almost have to listen just to find out the answer.

And the answer, in the most literal sense, is that the song is actually an ode of appreciation to a ladyfriend of the New Kids, a former bookworm type (“She was that girl in the corner / Thick-rimmed glasses…ever the outcast”) who has come out of her shell (“She went from wallpaper / To heartbreaker”) much to the group’s delight (“Went straight from a 2 / To an I just wanna own ya…baby I just wanna own ya.”) The word “remix” is used in a way to imply a new-and-improved version, one that the New Kids prefer to the girl’s original edit. (Basketball analyst Jalen Rose would undoubtedly approve.)

Read full article at PopDust.com.