Now That's a cleverly combined music compilation! (Now That's What I Call Music! 64)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Now That's What I Call Music! 64
Date:	10/04/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great tracks in a great compilation

Disadvantages: A couple out of place and a few I didn't like

2006 was a catchy year for chart music. There were a lot of new artists, and a lot of comebacks, and some of them are featured here on this album, Now That's What I Call Music Volume 64. The Now team have just released Now 72 for general retail, and no doubt it will do just as well as the previous 71 have managed to over the years since Now 1 first came out in the mid-1980s.

I am generally quite critical of some of the song choices on these albums, but I appreciate that a lot of it is going to be down to personal taste, with those who listen to nothing but the charts finding themselves agreeing with the choices, while those who go for a broader selection will probably wonder why some tracks have been chosen while other have been left out.

For once, I think they have got it right, on the whole, and this is more than likely down to my personal enjoyment of the music on offer. This 2 disc offering starts off well with the emergence of Gnarls Barkley and their hit Crazy, which spent a number of weeks at No.1, and deservedly so. Their Live Lounge version, which was virtually acoustic and much slower, is very enjoyable, and the dancier version released into the charts was understandably popular. The second track heralded the return of Nelly Furtado. After time out to start a family and reinvent herself, she returned with the extremely catchy and more raunchy style of music with Maneater: another instant hit. The third track was one that was very popular, but it bugged me. From Paris to Berlin was repetitive, as are a lot of dance tracks, but I think it was overplayed by a lot of radio stations, and as a result, I'm not a fan.

There are also some good additions in here from bands such as McFly (Don't Stop Me Now), The Kooks (She Moves In Her Own Way) and Orson (Bright Idea). Perhaps the one I was most looking forward to in terms of the bands was Primal Scream's Country Girl. It wasn't quite as good as their older stuff, but it was still a welcome addition for me. The Zutons' Valerie was a big track as well, although a lot of people would be confused between this version and the cover that Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse did later. The cover version is perhaps, and unfairly so, the better known one due to the higher publicity it received, but the Zutons' original version is much better, as it should be.

The second disc heralds the arrival of Lily Allen onto the music scene. Daughter of actor Keith Allen (more currently in the BBC drama Robin Hood as the Sheriff. Her track Smile is a lovely one that is cleverly constructed and does actually make me want to smile. Rihanna's SOS is understandably in there. Her tracks came thick and fast for a while, and although I did think they were of high quality, I felt rather saturated by them, this one included. The Black Eyed Peas and The Pussycat Dolls make it onto the second disc with Pump It and Buttonz respectively, and it's nice to see a host of catchy dance numbers and RnB tracks merging together for this second disc. I like the variety, particularly with Robin Beck's First Time getting the Sunblock treatment, and Mousse T vs Dandy Warhols giving us Horny As A Dandy. Curiously, the Sugababes' Red Dress is on this second disc. I would have thought it should have gone on the first disc, as it's out of place in the middle of the second disc and disrupts the rhythmn of the tracks, to be honest. It still deserves a place on the album, just not here. However, the last few tracks of the disc switch the mood back to that of the first disc. If you were to cut this disc off for the last 5, it would have followed the traditional set up of Now albums, but the inclusion of James Morrison, Will Young and finally Girls Aloud means it reverts back to the more poppy chart music of the first disc.

Whether or not this is a sales gimmick aimed at those people who look at the first tracks and the last tracks when making a buying decision, I'm not sure. It's a curious setup, but to be honest, it works. If it was one track out of place, as the Sugababes track is, it would have seemed a silly notion, but what this does is break up the monotony for those people who like a dance track every now and then but not a whole disc of them. Now That's What I Call Music albums have traditionally had more popular first discs than second discs, and this is a clever way of attempting to amend that.

Overall, I enjoyed this compilation. It featured some tracks that I really enjoyed listening to when they were released and aired, and having them combined on disc is very handy. While I still prefer the first disc to the second, I do play the second disc on here more than I do the second discs on other Now compilations. It's a good combination of poppy chart music and the more dancier and RnB focused tracks.

Dooyoo do provide a track listing, but to save a couple of clicks to find it, here they are:

1 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
2 Maneater - Nelly Furtado (Radio Version)
3 From Paris To Berlin - Infernal (Radio Version)
4 Voodoo Child - Rogue Traders
5 Don't Stop Me Now - McFly
6 Who Knew - P!nk
7 I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair) - Sandi Thom
8 She Moves In Her Own Way (Radio Version) - The Kooks
9 Fill My Little World (Radio Version) - The Feeling
10 Is It Any Wonder? - Keane
11 You're All I Have (Radio Edit) - Snow Patrol
12 In The Morning - Razorlight
13 Bright Idea (Radio Edit) - Orson
14 Valerie - The Zutons
15 Bang Bang You're Dead - Dirty Pretty Things
16 Monster - The Automatic
17 Faster Kill Pussycat - Oakenfold Featuring Brittany Murphy
18 Stoned In Love (Radio Edit) - Chicane Featuring Tom Jones
19 Country Girl - Primal Scream
20 Who Says You Can't Go Home (Radio Edit) - Bon Jovi
21 Up All Night - Matt Willis
22 Dance, Dance (Album Version (Edited)) - Fall Out Boy

Disc #2 Tracklisting
1 Smile (Radio Edit) - Lily Allen
2 SOS (Radio Edit) - Rihanna
3 Pump It (Radio Edit) - Black Eyed Peas
4 Buttonz (UK Edit Version) - The Pussycat Dolls Featuring Snoop Dogg
5 So Sick - Ne-Yo
6 Touch It (UK Radio Edit) - Busta Rhymes
7 Say I (Clean) - Christina Milian Featuring Young Jeezy
8 Mas Que Nada (Radio Edit) - Sergio Mendes Featuring Black Eyed Peas
9 Nine2five - The Ordinary Boys Vs. Lady Sovereign
10 Red Dress (Radio Edit) - Sugababes
11 Somebody's Watching Me - BeatFreakz
12 First Time (Radio Version) - Sunblock Featuring Robin Beck
13 World, Hold On (Children Of The Sky) - Bob Sinclar Featuring Steve Edwards
14 Tell Me Why - Supermode
15 Horny As A Dandy (Mousse T's Radio Mix) - Mousse T vs Dandy Warhols
16 Sensitivity (Radio Edit) - The Shapeshifters & Chic
17 Piece Of My Heart (Radio Edit) - Beverley Knight
18 You Give Me Something (Eg Version) - James Morrison
19 Who Am I - Will Young
20 All Over Again (Single Edit) - Ronan Keating And Kate Rusby
21 Whole Lotta History - Girls Aloud

Summary: Overall, a very good compilation from the Now team