gooddelta

Skall, what a beauty, would be such a fantastic winner, and not one I'd ever dreamt could ever do it as I said in that other thread, but easily my favourite here.

Freidland definitely deserved higher but techno like that won't be to everyone's tastes so I never thought it was quite in the mix to win, but did hope it would be top ten.

Another legendary one from The Kiffness too:

Could still go about 15 ways but I imagine Elëdan are about to have a nice time.

The same song which is clearly alt catnip is missing from a large number of the alt votes. Not too hard to work out which one is about to have a mega rise later.

Where is the pop bloc this month exactly?

Deep Blue (something) for 1996.

Also interesting to see the two sides of the Rod Stewart single both appearing on the same album. And T-Rex on the main album unlike 1972, I wonder if the licensing for them freed up at some point between the main and Extra 1972 albums, as it seems odd they weren't on the main album for that year. Not sure I've ever seen My Sweet Lord on any compilation.

I doubt anyone will be racking 1971 next to 1991 at home so is fine by me. What are your highlights from the tracklist? For me there seems to be a lot of strong classics on here, nice to see the UK Eurovision song on here, I guess the winner might be on the Extra as it went top ten in the UK. A good half of the songs I don't know so lots to discover.

That is quite a closing duo of songs That looks very comprehensive tbf, My Sweet Lord is the only missing No.1.

Thanks for running once more Jade, Biology would have been my preferred winner but an undeniable top two of course. What You Waiting For was such a fantastic song, like Biology so unusual in its structure. Why do all the cool songs stall at No.4. Toxic is a classic but definitely not my Britney favourite, or actually in my top five. Still, I can't argue with it winning, it's a standout pop single.

The Baby Jane song feels on the same level as the prior couple to me which came 10th. Nevertheless, the hype is here for it so it looks like it's coming for a big improvement. RontBet is shortening Skall odds to 6/1 (third favourite after joint Hendinia and Bronzil) and lengthening poor Yehesi out to 12/1 due to the votes they'll be missing.

Daz robbed. Heart, imagination, colour and fun. All things that can't be said about the cover of Somethin' Stupid, which gets my vote again.

Will go with Will this time as it's close with others and Grace was way better despite peaking much lower.

Domino I did like more at the time than I do now, and it is one of Jessie's stronger efforts. I wouldn't skip it if it came on now but probably wouldn't actively play it. Young definitely isn't a favourite, would be bottom ten for me I'm sure. Found it quite an average example of club pop that was simply a success due to Tulisa's profile at the time and not due to the song being anything spectacular.

Good luck hearing a boombox playing a ballad over 82,500 screaming football fans.

Skall is amazing, I just didn't dare to dream hard enough. Go on pop bloc, vote for it, you know you want to.

Nice, I've actually been lucky enough to see her so many times live in the last few years that it doesn't feel as essential for me to rush to get tickets, however the fact she is finally coming to my hometown Brighton is amazing. I no longer live there but tempted to go back for a night just to see her in the Dome <3 Hope the demand is there to sell out venues like that and The Palladium, they're not small.

Honestly this is my favourite Taylor single since the 1989 era. I'm still addicted to it, it's just so gorgeous to listen to. It has such a fragility and nostalgia to it that chimed so beautifully with the film.

Even so, I would say 1 is harsh when it's an improvement on the last release, aside from perhaps a few missing dance songs they may not have had any control over. I know people hand out 1-star reviews to make a point when they're unhappy, most people leave either 1 or 5-star reviews on restaurants for example, and that's fair enough if you truly hate something, but this while it has some bad spots is by no means a 1. We could have had 40 fillers and no hits, for example. But we got two No.1s by major stars and a lot of nice songs on Disc 1 especially. There aren't enough casual consumers reviewing these albums on iTunes anymore to offer balance, so we just end up with every new Now release getting a terrible average score. This really can't help the optics and must be putting people off buying them. They haven't released many true 1-star albums imo although for lack of imagination the recent Power Ballads spin-off would be (although more for 100% repeated songs from the series and not the quality of the actual songs featured on it).

That's a great buy. I finally got hold of Now 19 last year for £25 secondhand and felt like that was a bargain! In other news, my iTunes review for Now 124 is finally live and has dragged the average rating up from 1 to 2.5 stars. Anyone with an iTunes account, do feel free to add your own reviews if you feel it is worth more than 1 (which objectively it is if you compare the tracklist to the charts and what they had at their disposal to include), and let's try and keep this series going, at least until the Yearbooks are done!

It's not in the top 50 airplay chart anymore. If anything I haven't heard Rein Me In that much on the radio while it's been No.1, I heard it far more last year when it was first released or in the lower end of the top ten and actually playlisted by the major stations. I would wager that the fact it is not overplayed on radio is helping keep its streaming profile so high as people like it and are still seeking it out.

Now 42 was the first I bought and I remember picking it up in Little Chef (!) the day before official release. I was obsessed with it, but then even more addicted to Now 43, which at the time was the only place to get the radio edit of Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay (the CD single had only club mixes). That remains my favourite compilation ever, summer 1999 was just magic for music to my tastes. I have never missed buying a Now album on its week of release since. It has certainly helped to diversify my music taste over the years, and listen to things that were out of my usual wheelhouse. Even today I still find the odd discovery on there, although I can't remember the last time I found something I really love. More than anything I really have appreciated having a reliable, affordable way to get many of the year's biggest hits without having to shell out loads of money for all the CD singles or, later, downloads. While the winter editions tend to be the largest selling and often contain the bigger hits, traditionally I have often most enjoyed the summer editions, full of dance hits and Eurohits, and just feel good music. Now 43, Now 46, Now 49, Now 52 and Now 55 was an incredible run, and Now 64 and Now 70 were amazing too. More recently, Now 115 if we ignore Lewis Capaldi and David Kushner had my three favourite songs of the year in the opening five tracks in Miracle, Tattoo and Padam Padam <3 And was just a strong album overall.

I think the George/Wham! licensing stipulation has changed more recently than 2019 though. Obviously the Queen Disc 1, Track 1 stipulation is decades old at this point, but George seems to only be in the last five years, since Jenny left. Rihanna was very prolific in those years Ashley was compiling, so I think if he had the license then he probably wanted to make sure she was on there.

IIRC Jenny Fisher was the subject of mass criticism on Now forums, and on here, during her tenure ("Ashley Abram would never have put four retro tracks at the end of the numbered editions after Now 100", "Ashley would have got more Taylor Swift tracks licensed" etc). Even if she had stayed on the Yearbooks I can't see that the outcome would be any different as it's clearly Queen/its label and George's label/estate that have requested that slot at some point since she left, not the current compilers putting them first because it's their first choice.