gooddelta

No I won't. I rated it 5 on iTunes simply to bring up the average due to all the 1-star reviews posted.

Just finished listening to Now 124. I really enjoyed the first disc, a good selection of big hits and a few midtable hits that were missed from the previous release, plus some good pop songs that weren't big hits. I also very much enjoyed the first half of Disc 2, with the exception of the sequencing of Baby Steps next to Beauty And A Beat... they do not sit well sonically next to each other at all. Agreed that the Duran Duran song is decent, and I was liking Pinky Up more than the one time I listened to it, quite a 90s pop vibe to that. Niall Horan to the end was a bit of a slog for me though, too much filler country/MOR and songs I really didn't need from The Script and Westlife. The Kacy Musgraves song is fun though. I stand by my 3-star assessment having listened to it, one and a half decent discs with some slightly patchy sequencing in places, followed by half an hour I'll never get back.

I guess 90s digital licensing is a minefield compared to 70s. But yes quite likely a lot of the later year releases won’t be made available. Now never make the Extras available to stream at all, I suppose to keep the ‘collectors edition’ nature of them.

There will be a good reason for that, like a song on those albums being specifically available for licensing on CD but not for download. Every single song must be available for distribution digitally for the album to be available. Sometimes they get around this by locking songs to 'album only' but some labels don't want the songs up digitally at all. Of course, they could omit these songs from the tracklist, but I guess they want to make the CDs as strong as possible. They probably don't bother with the extra digital licensing cost for some of the Extras and spin-offs as they sell in such small quantities digitally anyway that it might cost more for the digital license than what they would get back in download sales.

All of those three were in the lower end of my personal top 100 of the year, although Hall Of Fame is somewhat annoying I liked it at the time. Wings was a nice proper debut for Little Mix and still a good song but sounds more dated than a lot of their material, although kudos to them for going with something brassy and not a generic club song. Diamonds on paper I should love, but I only like it. The verses and production are really strong, the chorus I find a bit droney. It just sounds like Rihanna imitating Sia too much I think for me to absolutely love it, espcially in the 'shine bright like a diamond part'. I'd have rather Sia just released it herself.

Tbf, Man I Need which is track 1 has still sold more than Rein Me In, and I guess it makes sense to split the Olivia songs over the discs. In hindsight it definitely looks odd, but with how it had done at the time of release it probably should have been more like Disc 2, track 3.

Wow. I wonder how much a full set of numbered Nows goes for now (if you have most of the first 18 as reissues). I also always wonder how much I'd get for the full set of Bravo Hits albums from 2 to 133, as I had to import all of those or buy them in Germany. The first edition I don't have but costs about £50 secondhand.

I have always been historically awful at predicting any anonymous contests! Surprised Orbital didn't make the top ten though with such a recognisable theme.

Ooh it picked up at the end, happy with 14th, thanks to all the voters, I'm happy with that. Congrats Dan, twice! On your win and your own song doing so well. Thanks for hosting AllStar! And sorry your entry didn't do better, it certainly was better than bottom five.

Dan's song was definitely better than a lot of the field here, fair play!

Another contest flop oops. I always loved Heart of Asia, and this OMD trance remake I've loved for years too so thought I'd give it an outing here. Really loved the entry from the host, nice one! My easy favourite.

I played it to my partner two weeks ago. She only very loosely follows modern music and hadn't heard it before and I didn't say what it was until afterwards. She enjoyed the 'jangly indie pop' feel and said it felt like it was from another time. I think it's just a very instantly warm and nostalgic kind of song, that doesn't really sound like anything in the charts, yet has the feel of a lot of old classics without sounding like any in particular. It's just very accessible, particularly with the addition of Olivia, the biggest star of the past year. The solo version is definitely album track territory but Olivia lifted it so much for me. It has started going viral again with this press coverage of the record break, and the Lollapalooza performance, it will dodge ACR and probably has a few more weeks in it at No.1 yet. It just seems to keep reviving itself at opportune moments. I really do feel like it will stand the test of time and be well remembered in 30 years from now so it doesn't bother me that it has broken the record. It's a strong track - not incredible, but I see why it has done so well.

Quite. I’m waiting to see which mid disc 2 filler becomes the next long running UK hit!

Predicting Orbital vs. Barry Can't Swim, although there are other songs I'd love to see take it.

Linkin Park, sorry. A fantastic track but Chase The Sun and Kids are both big personal favourites.

Back to Shakedown.

My heart will always be with Alice Deejay, as much as a classic Dog Days Are Over Is. I remember staying up late to hear the radio premiere of Back In My Life (for some reason it was premiered about 10pm, and I was young) and I wasn't disappointed!

With the current No.3 on Now 123. So Now has stake to two thirds of the current top three, just not on the current volume...

I heard the remix of Reba’s Fancy that came second for Dan a few years ago in a pub earlier. Definitely have never heard that before in public, nor expected to, but as it was my 18 that contest I was very much into it.

Fair. I haven't had chance to listen yet as not at home but I noticed Go was listed in the booklet as the 'Radio Edit', which I'm pretty sure I've never even heard as don't listen to the radio so just heard the main version on Spotify.

You checked early for an album you rated 1-star? Maybe they realised the leaked early copies were harming first week sales. I bought it today in HMV, which had loads of copies which was nice to see. Also bought Ariana's album, the Eurovision 2025 vinyl (down from £55 to a bargain £20) and the Super Mario Galaxy Blu-ray - thank goodness it was payday.

Yay… I actually like Rein Me In and Dai Dai the same amount more or less but was ready for something fresh. And Shakira at No.1 would have been a great story to tell as well.

Switching to Baha Men, it's fun and I loved the chart run at the time but it's not exactly one I love. The Cassie song is a gem.

The week that Orson beat Chico and Black Eyed Peas in 2006 was a wafer thin margin for the whole top three. 17,694 / 17,365 / 17,360 The Kate Nash one will always be the worst for me, because it spent so long at No.2 and was one of the year's defining hits. I'd have happily bought 17 copies that week if I'd known, it deserved to be a chart topper.

Yeah Luukered was an emergency placeholder that I kept in there after the drama with Fleeting. Not sure I would have sent it another time tbf, so that worked out very well (yet has cursed me ever since I fear).