Tylky

Looks like Now 120 was the last one - surprisingly recent! Yeah, not too keen on this release. It's very weak, and it's starting to feel like one person had decided this tracklist based on their own personal taste, crossed with anything with no licensing issues. Cheap and cheerful, so they say. Really on the fence about purchasing the numbered volumes at this moment in time. I don't really enjoy the new releases, and have been enjoying the Yearbooks far more. It also feels like they're holding back so that they actually have something for the summer release.

There's no reason to. Now 16 and Now 94 had no number 1s on them and for the most part, they were quite solid albums. I remember Now 94 very well, as Drake had been dominating the top spot for weeks on end with 'One Dance', and that ended up on Now 95 anyway. So considering the lack of a No.1 on Now 94, it was a pretty strong album on the whole. No excuses for Now here, the only thing I can think of is the quantity of material they can put on there. With how slow the charts are at the moment (current No.1 is already on Now 122) they're probably allowing extra time to ensure the next release isn't all filler, and may have some killer.

They stopped releasing numbered Nows in 2024 after Now 90 in the US. I wouldn't say it's unreasonable for them to knock it down to 2 volumes a year here.

"Based" question but, with how slow the charts have become, how long the songs are staying on the chart, and how so many artists are refusing to have their tracks feature on the numbered volumes, do you think NOW may even cut down to two volumes a year? NOW That's What I Call Winding Down!

Rest assured we'll likely see David Sylvian on at least one of these Vaults!

Highlights for me are as follows: Swing Out Sister - You On My Mind Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA Gloria Estefan - Get On Your Feet Labi Siffre - (Something Inside) So Strong I'll be honest here, the ones that haven't been on numbered NOWs in the 80s I'm not really too familiar with (sans the above) but I'll give them a go. Gutted that there's no Star Trekkin' (The Firm), Jack Your Body (Steve "Silk" Hurley), Midnight Radio (Taffy), Don't Know Much (Linda Ronstadt/Aaron Neville) and Lambada (Kaoma).

I've taken a wide berth of the Eras albums because of how many tracks feature on the Yearbooks. The Yearbooks are more my thing, so will be taking a pass on this release.

Bit rude of the member of staff to judge an individual purchasing an album from their own shop. The staff should be encouraging the purchase, not discouraging it, haha! Sales a sale at the end of the day! But yeah, I can see it being another charity shop item for £1.

Fantastic tracklist! Several highlights are here for me, they are: Gerry & The Pacemakers - I Like It and You'll Never Walk Alone Brian Poole & The Tremeloes - Twist and Shout and Do You Love Me? The Searchers - Sweets For My Sweet Stan Getz - The Girl From Ipanema The Surfaris - Wipe Out The Kinks - You Really Got Me and All Day and All Of The Night Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1 and Do Wah Diddy Diddy Honestly, on the whole, I have to admit this is a strong tracklist. No Beatles is to be expected due their record label. Even if you're not keen on this era, there are some really timeless classics here.

On A Ragga Tip is an absolute banger. Reminds me of my car trips to Towyn when I was a little lad. My old man would always play it on his mixtape in the car up there!

Don't know the full tracklisting yet, but based on what's in this trailer, I'm adding this one to my collection. I really enjoyed Volume 1, and the fact that this is split over 2 years rather than 3 means we get a little more from each year. Looking forward to this one!

I also noticed that not a lot of websites were able to get their hands on it ready for preorder. I had issues with Rarewaves (I use as an alternative to Amazon or HMV) so had to preorder via Amazon on this occasion. But yeah, I agree that people weren't able to download it either, which have had an impact on sales. I think digital is a good alternative for those who haven't got the physical space.

They may do something like "NOW Yearbook Presents... Legends & Oddities: The 80's". Have things like Bowie, Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson (if licensed) and Kraftwerk, The Firm, Spitting Image etc. I'd buy that!

Highlights for me are: Double Pet Shop Boys massive No.1s - It's A Sin and West End Girls De La Soul - Me Myself and I Heart - Alone Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark Cliff Richard, Hank Marvin & The Young Ones - Living Doll Personal favourites: Gloria Estefan - Rhythm Is Gonna Get You Fuzzbox - International Rescue Trans-X - Living On Video The majority of these are going to be new discoveries for me, so I'm looking forward to it!

That's the thing. I mean, technically there's nothing stopping them doing a definitive decade closure with an Extra on top, but at that point, they would have exhausted most chart smashes. Just like they redeemed Pet Shop Boys, Bruce Springsteen and Heart here, they may be able to redeem other acts that have had licensing nightmares previously, but then NOW have acquired the rights to since.

It was probably a licensing issue at the time. It may have been rectified or salvaged very recently. It's still good that they've made the collection in the end.

Oh this is cool! It's A Sin is confirmed! Also, Dancing In The Dark! This is excellent! Looking forward to the tracklist!

I genuinely thought this was going to be Top 5, if not a new No.1 for Ari. Very surprised it only went Top 20. She was really blowing up around this time and it's crazy it didn't get any higher than No.14. Though granted, the chart was incredibly stagnant around that time.

It's got the 80's colour theming at the bottom. Realistically it could be the '85-'89: The Final Chapter, but a part of me wishes it's more of backfill of tracks that at the time couldn't be licensed, but now can be. Like some kind of Extra Plus! 😆

I'm really hoping this to be true. So many big songs that didn't make the original Yearbooks, let's hope we get the "oddballs" and such on these final chapters. Also, hard agree on Roxette - Fading Like A Flower. Both it and the Dancing DJs remix are absolutely stellar.

I agree with all of this. I don't know if Samantha Janus is trying to repress her early years (now Samantha Womack) but I'm aware the song isn't on streaming either. It saddens me that the Extra has been cheapened like this. I stand by what I say, when I say that the 90's Yearbooks are sadly weaker than the other decades. NTWICM, we get it, yes you can now put these big names on your albums, but their songs were so minor at the time that they come across as unrecognisable today. Another thing for me, is how underrepresented the dance anthems of this year have been. Yes, Disc 2 on the main was quite decent, but for two tracks (The Prodigy and Moby) they couldn't even get the versions that were played on the radio at the time. Instead we get the original 3 minute version of Charly, and some 2006 remix of Go. But on the Extra (and I note how they keep highlighting this in their emails promoting the Extra like it's a good thing) it has like, 3 proper dance tracks and that's it. It's not reflective of the UK at the time at all. EDIT: Just checked Spotify, turns out 'A Message To Your Heart' is now on there! That's good to know!

Noticed that. It's good they rectified it before release! Have you had a chance to listen to it yet? What do you think of it? I'll listen to it when I find the time and put together my thoughts!

I've just logged in for the first time in awhile, and I must say... these are cracking mate! The sequencing, the parallel universe if NOW didn't have licensing issues... it's brilliant! I really want to listen to each one of these and rediscover any secret gems that I would have otherwise forgotten about! Thank you!

2007 on the whole was very strong for the numbered Nows. Any rehashes will be relatively minor. The Millennium '06-'07 was the same; they had to dig a bit deeper for more obscure tracks.