New Edition back after 8-year hiatus

Over the past two decades, New Edition has managed to overcome the kind of obstacles that have sent other groups hurtling into “Whatever happened to …” territory.

They aced their transition from preteen bubblegum pop to adult R&B, survived the loss (and subsequent reappearance) of the dynamic Bobby Brown, endured lackluster sales and flourished despite divergent career paths and stretches of inactivity.

Yet their latest comeback attempt may prove the most difficult one yet.

On Tuesday, Ralph Tresvant, Johnny Gill, Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe released their eighth album, “One Love,” after an eight-year layoff. It incorporates a bit of today’s hip-hop sound along with the polished R&B grooves that New Edition fans have come to expect.

Although signed to P. Diddy’s youth-oriented Bad Boy label, they’ve still got “old-school” stamped all over them. And that’s part of the problem, especially in an R&B market dominated by young stars with a hip-hop bent.

DeVoe says a recent conversation with a young teen confirmed his worst fears.

“She said, ‘Let me start with the people I don’t like. 50 Cent – he’s played out.’ How is 50 Cent played out? He only had one record! (But) it’s like that across the board,” he lamented.

Still, New Edition has reason to be hopeful. Their last record, 1996’s “Home Again,” also came after an eight-year layoff – and sold more than 2 million copies.

And their recent tour showed they still have an audience: At this summer’s Essence Festival, where acts like Prince and Mary J. Blige were billed as the main draw, New Edition got one of the wildest receptions as thirty-something women shrieked like teenagers and men in baggy jeans swayed to past hits like “Can You Stand The Rain,” “Mr. Telephone Man” and “Candy Girl.”

“As far as their showmanship and the energy when they hit the screen and the stage … they’re like, professional,” says one of the new album’s producers, Stevie J. “Kids are going to get a chance to hear some classic sounds from an older R&B group.”

Not that New Edition is exactly ancient: They’re all in their mid to late 30s.

“The crazy part about it is they’re not older than most of the people that are in the game right now, it’s just that they started so young,” says P. Diddy.

New Edition was the ‘80s answer to The Jackson Five. With hits like “Popcorn Love,” they endeared themselves to R&B teenyboppers and helped rejuvenate the teen music scene, spawning imitators like fellow Boston natives New Kids on the Block.

But unlike other teen groups, they managed to stick around past puberty, and even withstood personnel changes, including the loss of Brown in the late ‘80s (he briefly rejoined the group for 1996’s “Home Again” album and tour).

They also succeeded as separate entities. Tresvant and Gill had solo successes, and Bell, Bivins and DeVoe had massive hits as a three-man group in the early ‘90s.

When all forces reunited in 1996 for “Home Again,” it seemed as if that success would continue unabated. Then came a contract dispute with their old label, MCA.

Eventually, they decided they needed to get in front of an audience, new album or not. They began touring off and on around 2000, though it was often a far cry from their arena-tour heydays; sometimes they performed in parks or at multiple-act oldiefests.

“When we’re walking around the malls and just living our everyday personal lives, you hear, ‘When are you guys coming back? We miss you guys,’ ” Tresvant said.

P. Diddy noticed that fan support and offered the group a deal. Although the connection provided some prerelease hype, the group acknowledges the difficulties of capitalizing on it.

“If you look at a (radio) playlist … out of the top 20 records they’re playing, 15 of them are hip-hop. So there’s no room for R&B, and it’s not just us, it’s everybody,” he said.

But they still plan on getting on that list – even if it takes them a while to do it.

“We have a record out there now, we have president and a CEO that is passionate about the group,” DeVoe said. “We’re coming with a second single. You don’t like that first one, we gonna shove another one down your throat. You’ll like that one, then we’re coming with another album.”