... The strap-line said it all: "Now that's what I call music!" At a stroke, one of the most addictively collectible and relentlessly populist series of music compilation CDs was born.
Today our porcine hero is back with a 25 year celebration of the NOW legend. The compilation does what it ... Read review
Disc 1 I Want To Break Free - Queen Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham! There Must Be An ... more
Angel (Playing With My Heart) - Eurythmics Every Breath You Take - The Police Pride (In The Name Of Love) - U2 Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel Walk This Way - RUN-DMC...
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Advantages: Musical Tardis - buy it at all costs! Disadvantages: If you want edgy and alternative, look elsewhere
...25 year celebration of the NOW legend. The compilation does what it says on the tin - it provides a triple CD extravaganza with one disc apiece for the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties. The pig, clad in shades and headphones - the kind of icon that really was acceptable in the 80s - smugly sits with one trotter aside the chunky NOW Logo that has adorned every compilation since NOW20. He might as well be smug, for the series must surely remain a cash ... ...Firma Capital Partners, but the NOW brand must remain one of the corporate jewels in the crown.
I have come almost to regard these albums as an official transcript of the chart-toppers of the age, a kind of voluminous pseudo-authoritative reference point for the would-be chart historian. Of course if you are expecting NOW! 25 Years to contain edgy, alternative or controversial tracks, please look elsewhere. Every stadium-filler, floor-filler ... more
In 1983 a novelty album topped the Christmas charts - a compilation of the very best pop and rock of the day, selected by Polygram/Virgin/EMI and lavished across two (yes, two!) vinyl records. The branding was distinctive from day one, being a retro 1920s advertisement showing a pig entranced by the singing of a cockerel. The strap-line said it all: "Now that's what I call music!" At a stroke, one of the most addictively collectible and relentlessly populist series of music compilation CDs was born.
Today our porcine hero is back with a 25 year celebration of the NOW legend. The compilation does what it says on the tin - it provides a triple CD extravaganza with one disc apiece for the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties. The pig, clad in shades and headphones - the kind of icon that really was acceptable in the 80s - smugly sits with one trotter aside the chunky NOW Logo that has adorned every compilation since NOW20. He might as well be smug, for the series must surely remain a cash cow (to mix animal metaphors). Even though the original economic logic - all those songs for the price of a few singles! - has been undercut by the internet and iTunes revolution, the albums continue to sell very well. EMI may be in the throes of a radical corporate turnaround under the securitisation wizards of Terra Firma Capital Partners, but the NOW brand must remain one of the corporate jewels in the crown.
I have come almost to regard these albums as an official transcript of the chart-toppers of the age, a kind of voluminous pseudo-authoritative reference point for the would-be chart historian. Of course if you are expecting NOW! 25 Years to contain edgy, alternative or controversial tracks, please look elsewhere. Every stadium-filler, floor-filler and overplayed radio anthem is here, often drenched in an EU-sized mountain of cheese. But it's fabulous. Some of these tracks really are diamonds that sound just as perfect decades later and will doubtless do so in 2029 or 2039. This is a truly fantastic collection designed to invoke recognition, nostalgia and spontaneous karaoke in just about anyone from age 20 to 40. Bring on all the choons! I really enjoyed not only the music but the centrefold of the CD booklet which shows every single NOW album cover since the dawn of time.
Personally I preferred the more thematically varied and adventurous Eighties designs, before the monolithic NOW logo, a design of almost Twentieth-Century Fox solidity, arrived with its imprimatur of authority. The majority of readers will know, and doubtless be over-familiar, with virtually all of these tracks. Here is the full listing, enlivened with grossly partial, subjective and critical commentary from my good self. The CD, by the way, can be obtained from Amazon for the truly bargainous price of £11.98. Buy it at all costs!
*** Disc 1 - The Magnificent Eighties *** 1. Queen - I Want To Break Free Eighties soaring power-rock - I love it.
2. Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go Go on, admit it - you've danced to this too. Catchier than a cold.
3. Eurythmics - There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) Ethereal synthesized beauty from Ms Lennox and Mr Stewart.
4. The Police - Every Breath You Take A landmark track, though I preferred the version by Mr. Diddy myself.
5. U2 - Pride (In The Name of Love) Well of course it's great, but it does drag on and is too earnest for my liking. Lacks the urgency and drive of the Joshua Tree era -now why aren't those songs on the disc?
6. Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer Every time I listen to this, I feel like I'm in Miami and it's 1986 all over again. Incidentally, this is the greatest music video of the age.
7. RUN-DMC feat. Aerosmith - Walk This Way Seminal, magnificent and groundbreaking - it fused rock metal and hip-hop decades ahead of the rest.
8. Cameo - Word Up Funk masterpiece, although the singer's red codpiece on Top Of the Pops (1986) remains one of the era's more questionable fashion statements.
9. Ray Parker Junior - Ghostbusters Who ya gonna call? Bill Murray?
10. Michael Jackson - Thriller Overblown, overhyped and over-produced, but still epic and awesome. It's like trying to imagine modern fiction without Dan Brown.
11. Diana Ross - Chain Reaction One of the finest and unduly forgotten hooks of the Eighties. My favourite track on the first CD.
12. Phil Collins - You Can't Hurry Love Not my personal favourite, but he was a huge star of the era.
13. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Two Tribes Ground-breaking with a classic intro - "The air attack warning sounds like. This is the sound". You know the one.
14. Pet Shop Boys - It's A Sin. Monumental synth extravaganza from the kings of deadpan electronica.
15. Duran Duran - The Reflex One of my least favourite of their opus, although let's face, it wouldn't have been the Eighties without the lads.
16. Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart More hooks than a meat factory. What a classic, under-rated tune!
17. David Bowie - Modern Love I know he's a genius, but if it's later than Ziggy I'm not interested.
18. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon An escapist frolic of a song which loses its charm with repetition.
19. UB40 - Red Red Wine Reggae masterpiece from the Brummie lads.
***Disc: 2 - The Roaring Nineties - approximately ***
1. R.E.M. Everybody Hurts I have been a fan for decades, but as an IRS-years purist I cannot rate this track as a stand-out. Still I know other people who claim it changed their lives.
2. Robbie Williams - Angels "Down the waterfall, wherever life may take me..." Is there anyone who doesn't love this gem of a song? Guy Chambers, by the way, is a genius.
3. Boyzone - No Matter What Too ponderous for my tastes, but others label it a classic.
4. The Beautiful South: A Little Time Paul Heaton and crew at their withering best with sarcasm as sharp as razors. I hope this song really did get the PRS cheques flowing in.
5. Oasis - Wonderwall Familiar to millions, some might say. This was and always will be the song of my generation. I can't even begin to think about it objectively.
6. Natalie Imbruglia - Torn A frail, harmonic and beautiful tune. Outstanding.
7. Wet Wet Wet - Love Is All Around Actually, I preferred the R.E.M version on MTV Unplugged, but who am I to argue with millions of cinema-goers?
8. Tina Turner - The Best Forget the David Brent impression in Series 2 of "The Office"; this is a thoroughbred of a song.
9. Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth A slice of pure pop perfection from this gifted Californian. Melodic, polished and energetic - she has my vote any day.
10. The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) Great pub singalong from the bros. Reid, though inferior to "Letter From America" in my humble opinion.
11. James - Sit Down The greatest song on the album, bar none. A slice of pure angst-ridden theatrical genius of Wagnerian proportions. Epic.
12. New Radicals - You Get What You Give Nice ditty.
13. Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much Go girl! The claws are out!
14. Cher - Believe The swansong classic. Do you believe in life after love?
15. Spice Girls - Wannabe More a mass cultural event than a song. If you can remember 1996, you weren't there.
16. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time Thus begins the legend that launched a million celebrity gossip magazines.
17. Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way A pleasantly harmonic song that is apparently a boyband classic.
18. Roxette - It Must Have Been Love One of the greatest ballads of the 1990s. Roxette are grossly overdue a major revival and a re-evaluation showing them to be Swedish popmeisters in the greatest traditions of Abba. It will happen. Watch this space.
19. Sinead O'Connor A masterpiece, though the song for me is never the same without the stunning video with its "L'Annee Derniere a Marienbad" filmic quality and its agonising close-ups of the weeping Sinead. Just listen to those sublime lyrics again - "All the flowers in the back yard, died when you went away..." The author, Prince, is truly gifted.
*** Disc 3 - The Modern World***
1. James Blunt - You're Beautiful A classic love it/hate it track - as I know you will already have made up your mind, I will remain silent.
2. Take That - Patience A monumental return to prominence from (in my view) the greatest boyband of all time.
3. Duffy - Mercy The edgy, authentic Sixties diva is back. Don't mess.
4. Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse - Valerie Forget everything else. The girl can sing.
5. OutKast - Hey Ya! A pure energy surge of fun, positivity and ice-cold lyrical flow - "What's cooler than cool?"
6. Nelly Furtado - ManEater Very danceable, very catchy, very successful.
7. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy Impressively slick, hook-laden, smooth and funky - a well-deserved smash.
8. MIKA - Grace Kelly Freddie's back, and this ain't Elm Street. Superb, superb track.
9. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby If the century has given us one great singalong anthem, this is it.
10. The Killers - Somebody Told Me A high-voltage power surge from the kings of Vegas. A genuine masterpiece with a lyrical intensity and raw energy that make you realise this is a once-in-a-decade track.
11. Sugababes - Push the Button Enjoyable, poppy and bright song with the slickest production values around. Reminds me of Christmas parties back in 2005.
12. Katy Perry - I kissed a girl If you spent 2008 on Mars, you may have missed this track.
13. Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out of My Head All hail the Princess. That's Cathy Dennis and her superlative song-writing skills, by the way.
14. Tony Christie - Is This The Way to Amarillo I'm probably one of the few people on Ciao who have actually visited Amarillo. It's really not all that.
15. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z - Umbrella In 2007 it rained more than ever, but this luscious and ice-cold track was there for our amusement. In anticipation of precipitation...
16. Black Eyed Peas - My Humps From radical social commentary to extolling the virtues of Fergie's "humps", all in the space of just two albums. Still, I did pick up Elephunk album for £2.50 at the Woolworth's liquidation sale and it's really rather good.
17. Timbaland feat OneRepublic - Apologize A soulful, epic and accomplished track fusing the talents of the hip-hop uber-wizard and the popular band.
18. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River He is surely the greatest of all the Mouseketeers.
19. Coldplay - Fix You It's like Marmite.
20. Paolo Nutini - Last Request An unusual choice for the album, as it could almost be called alternative.
21. Will Young - Leave Right Now A beautiful and emotionally resonant track from a gifted musician.
22. Westlife - You Raise Me Up A suitably poptastic and anthemic end to this superlative and fabulous collection.
(c) Paul/WestOcean 2008. Also on Dooyoo as EasternStar.
Westocean 01.01.2009 (01.01.2009)
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