This instalment includes a good selection of number ones from DJ Sammy ("Heaven") and the Sugababes ("Round Round"), to name but two. Other pop favourites include Blue ("One Love"), Las Ketchup ("Ketchup Song") and Darius with his number one "Colourblind".
On an indie guitar note, there's the giant "In My Place" by Coldplay and "Check the Meaning" by ex-Verve Richard Ashcroft. From the heavy rock camp there's Puddle of Mudd ("She Hates Me") and Bowling for Soup ("Girl All the Bad Guys Want") and in the urban corner there's Eminem's "Without Me" and "Ms Dynamite's "Dy-Na-My-Tee".
As ever there are bizarre inclusions: it's hard to imagine anyone listening to the likes of Liberty X or Britney Spears then getting deep down and dirty with Status Quo or Eva Cassidy but at the end of the day, diversity is the nature of this beast. --Georgina Collins
Go buy it!!!
Kicking off with euro-cheese from DJ Sammy and the unavoidable Ketchup Song could sound like a bad omen but things get better, with slick tunes from Sugababes and Blue, coupled with uplifting ones from Darius and Liberty X. Moving down the list of CD1 is pure pop including S Club Juniors, Kylie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor before abruptly moving onto trance music including the lovely "Because The Night" by Jan Wayne.
CD2 starts off with the indie heavyweights Coldplay, Oasis and U2 and great songs from Richard Ashcroft and the stunning "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton. Eminem makes a foray onto the CD, which had previously ignored his work, with the genius that is "Without me" followed by popppy sort of rock from Puddle Of Mudd and the wonderfully named Bowling For Soup. The CD rounds itself off with the inexplicable "Shiny Disco Balls" what on earth are they on about?
The Now Cds are always well worth the buy and it has bigger hits than the previous Now collection. And who else would have Eminem, Status Quo and Eva Cassidy all on the same CD?
Disc One of Now 53 is a corker. We start with DJ Sammy's #1, and four of the first five songs are #1 hits. All are good, Las Ketchup getting you in the Summer mood, and Sugababes and Atomic Kittens providing good pop songs. But why on earth has Enrique been tossed in at track 3? A #12 seperating #1 hits? It just doesn't make sense.
The next few tracks are good, if uneventful songs. Liberty X pick the pace back up with their corker, "Got To Have Your Love", followed quickly by classy r&b with Romeo f/Christina Milian and Samantha Mumba - my two personal favourites on the the album. Abs, S Club Juniors, Britney and Kylie are next. Four reasonable (S Club Juniors, Abs) or good (Britney and Kylie) pop songs. We end with some dance from Scooter, Kelly Llorenna's top single and another catchy number from Sophie Ellis Bextor.
However, Now slips into a problem. Disc Two is ocne again a let down. Coldplay and Oasis are reasonable starters, two good songs. However, a lot of the rest is just forgettable. U2 have done far better than their effort here. We are saved with a smattering of pop, but really - Vanessa Carlton, Appleton, Daniel Bedingfield and Eminem cannot save this disc. The final track, "Starry Eyed Surprise" is a good track too.
But why do they fall into this trap? Rock fans won't like CD1, Pop fans won't like CD2, and if you are like me - have a reasonable acceptance to various genres, it is still a little too varied.
End of year Now's usually house a few big hits from the year. Like Now 44 having hits from the first half of the year from Britney, Shania Twain - and even Steps from the year before. now 47 had All Saints' "Pure Shores" released about 9 months beforehand. Now 50 had Westlife too, chucked in from earlier on in the year. Surely we could have got Shakira, maybe Holly Valance to make it more of a "must get collection" rather than a typical mid year Now?
Overall, it is still a well rounded CD, but by putting most of the pop/dance on one disc and having the other disc full of indie and rock, chances are you will only be playing one disc, which is dissappointing.
However where this Now! steps up is in terms of the amount of hits it brings with less of the songs that didnt chart. Few noticeable ones are the very random listing of Eva Cassidy's "Imagine" and Status Quo(!). Maybe there's some appeal to the older market here where I'm missing the point, however on the balance of things this is a fine summary of all the recent chart choons!
