| Jordan Knight | |
| Type: | Studio album |
| Artist: | Jordan Knight |
| Cover: | JordanKnight-JordanKnight.jpeg |
| Released: | May 25, 1999 |
| Studio: | Flyte Tyme (Minneapolis, Minnesota) |
| Length: | 50:16 |
| Label: | Interscope |
| Producer: | Jordan Knight, Stevie Bensusen, Claudio Cueni, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Pro J, Robin Thicke, Donnie Wahlberg |
| Next Year: | 2004 |
Jordan Knight is the debut album by New Kids on the Block frontman Jordan Knight, released on May 25, 1999, by Interscope Records. Knight co-produced eight of the eleven tracks on the album with help from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and a then unknown Robin Thicke. The album sold over 500,000 copies in the US alone and reached number 29 on the Billboard 200.
The album was released in 1999 at the height of MTV pop culture. The first single, "Give It to You" received heavy radio airplay and rotation on MTV, as well as BET and VH1. The album was certified Gold months after its release.
In Asia, Knight and boy-band 98 Degrees headlined a tour in support of their albums.
AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised Knight for updating his "smooth urban soul stylings" with various "contemporary sources to create a stylized, fresh sound." He concluded that: "Jordan Knight is not a perfect album -- there's a little bit of filler that weighs down the second half of the record -- but the best moments are surprisingly strong, innovative, and assured: the kind of mainstream music that would be impressive regardless of the source, but it's all the more remarkable considering Knight's teen pop heritage." Marc Weingarten of the Los Angeles Times praised Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for adding "sonic sparkle into even the most workmanlike tracks" throughout the album. He concluded that: "Too many ballads spoil the momentum, but this kid has clearly grown into his own man." David Browne, writing for Entertainment Weekly, criticized the record for Knight's "well-bred but bland" vocal performance, the overreliance of samples and remakes throughout the track listing, and the "buttery production" removing any semblance of soul.
Credits adapted from the liner notes