Of course, New Kids On The Block - or NKOTB, as most of their adoring fans know them - weren't the first boy band. And instead of having flowers thrown at him, Harry Styles may have ended up selling them. In fact, there maybe wouldn't have been a "TRL" era at all. Indeed, without its mix of gloopy ballads and slightly unconvincing attempts to establish street cred, the "Total Request Live" era would have looked and sounded very different. Yet like 1988's other game-changers, the Boston quintet's sophomore album was pivotal in shaping the musical landscape for the following decade and beyond. It's unlikely you'll ever see New Kids On The Block 's Hangin ' Tough mentioned in the same influential breath as Pixies' Surfer Rosa, Public Enemy 's It Takes A Nation of Millions and Tracy Chapman 's self-titled debut. Watch: Andrew Bird Covers Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" For ReImagined "Christmas Party," Jacquees Hark! What sounds come flowing alabaster?" There are a couple originals in here that address this idea of light and warmth in the darkness as well as some classics that have some nostalgic resonance with me. Of the project, the " Olympians" singer said, "A lot of folks have a hard time with the holidays but they serve a purpose to us as a people-to create comfort, warmth and atmosphere within the darkness and the cold that can crush one's spirit. One of the original tracks, "Alabaster," feels both like a church hymn and a local pub's winter closing song, in the best way possible. The six-track surprise project is very much an Andrew Bird Christmas album, filled with his trademark whistling, melancholic lyrics and a mellow, lo-fi "White Christmas" cover. The indie folk-rock violinist's new EP, Hark!, follows his aptly-titled, GRAMMY nominated LP, My Finest Work Yet. Like Los Lobos, current GRAMMY nominee Andrew Bird has dropped his first holiday album several decades into his career (his first album came out in 1996).
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