Well, I’ve been trying to get round to it for a few days, but today I finally got the bookshelves in place in the bedroom. Or the frames, at least:
Bookshelves! They will look a lot better when they’ve got books on them.
These are Ikea Billy bookshelves that we’ve had for well over a decade – Geth adopted them from his PhD supervisor when he was living in his first flat in Edinburgh, circa 2004. As such, they’re made in a slightly different way from modern Billy bookshelves, which was fun when I was trying to remember how to put them together earlier! I’ve not put the shelves or books on yet, because I want to live with the frames for a couple of days and see if there are any issues such as always bumping into bookshelf corners etc., as it’s quite a small bedroom.
Assuming no such issues, I will get it done later this week though. It’ll be nice to have access to some of our books again.
Day 75 brings us to Now! #75, which came out on 29th March 2010.
This is the way the world looked in March 2010…if you were attending a ceilidh in a slightly darkened room. I’m so glad I’ve lost the weight and don’t have to wear those shapeless black dresses anymore.
Can you believe we’re three quarters of the way through this Now! marathon? That’s like being 19.65 miles of the way into an actual marathon. Only 6.55 miles to go – that’s easy! I will remember this moment when I’m 19.65 miles of the way through the London Marathon next April (spoiler: I almost certainly will not).
Also, we’re finally into the 2010s, the fourth and final decade of the Now! compilations so far (and also my life so far). Having followed the charts very closely this decade, I can say with certainty that the remaining Now! compilations will definitely be better than the ’00s ones. The ’00s was a real low for music. (Except 2009, when it picked up.) Thankfully I don’t have to listen to those again!
Track 1: Lady Gaga – Bad Romance
Stunning, classic electropop track – brilliant right from the a cappella intro. Great stuff.
Track 2: 3OH!3 and Katy Perry – Starstrukk
I love this track, even with the silly whistling bit during the verse. Awesome party song.
Love the daft lyrics, and it’s got a great atmosphere.
Track 7: Kesha – Tik Tok
Another good party song – and the vocal style was refreshingly different at this point.
Track 8: Timbaland and Katy Perry – If We Ever Meet Again
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Katy Perry on track 2.
Love the chorus though – good track.
Track 9: Jason Derulo – In My Head
The tune’s a bit generic, but it’s still a good danceable song.
Track 10: Rihanna – Rude Boy
Nice atmosphere, interesting vocals. Another great track.
Track 11: Chipmunk and Talay Riley – Look For Me
This one’s a bit bland and forgettable, and the chorus is annoying.
Track 12: Glee Cast – Don’t Stop Believin’
Cover of the ’80s Journey classic by the cast of hit TV show Glee. This cover resulted in the original version – which had never actually been a hit in the UK when it was released in the ’80s – becoming a huge song during 2010 and staying prominent for the rest of the decade so far (I hear it played at every half marathon I run). I’m not complaining – both versions are awesome and epic.
Track 13: Gabriella Cilmi – On A Mission
Great ’70s disco throwback track! Love it.
Track 14: Alexandra Burke – Broken Heels
Another great party tune – very danceable.
Track 15: Sugababes – About A Girl
Great dance beat, but the tune’s pretty generic.
Track 16: The Saturdays – Ego
There’s something about the tune that’s a little irritating, but it’s got a good beat.
Track 17: Jedward and Vanilla Ice – Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)
So we had Vanilla Ice sampling Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 song Under Pressure in 1989 for Ice Ice Baby, which was already considered fairly sacreligious, and then in 2010 we had Jedward doing a medley of both tracks and getting Vanilla Ice to help out with vocals. It’s as awful as you might expect, but it somehow got to number two in the charts.
Track 18: Justin Bieber – One Time
Bieber in his early ‘fifteen and squeaky’ era. It’s sort of half laughable and half headache-inducing.
Track 19: Jay Sean, Sean Paul and Lil’ Jon – Do You Remember
Good tune, but I can’t listen to it without hearing Sean Paul’s opening vocals as ‘got dirty egg‘, thanks to presenter Reggie Yates pointing it out on the Radio 1 chart show at the time.
Track 20: Pixie Lott – Cry Me Out
Too ballad-y and slow for me.
Track 21: Joe McElderry – The Climb
The annual inclusion of the previous year’s X Factor winner. This is the one from 2009 that didn’t get the Christmas number one thanks to the much-publicised campaign to get Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name to number one instead. That campaign reinvigorated my interest in the music charts after a few years of being Too Busy Being Goth, and led to my decision to follow the charts for the entirety of the 2010s to see how the decade would pan out musically. Halfway through 2018, that particular habit is still going, and I expect it will last into the 2020s and beyond.
Anyway, the track. It’s a pointless cover of the Miley Cyrus song, and there’s nothing else to say about it.
Track 22: Helping Haiti – Everybody Hurts
Charity cover of the REM classic by too many artists to mention. There’s some interesting voice-spotting to be done, but the point of this cover, as ever with these things, was fundraising to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Track 23: Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind [Part II]
It’s Part II because this is the slow piano version. Part I was a more upbeat song with Jay-Z rapping the main verses. I prefer Part I, but that’s mainly ’cause I’m not into slow songs – this is still a great tune.
Track 24: Owl City – Fireflies
It’s a bit twee, but it’s a gorgeous tune – love that chorus.
Track 25: Jay-Z and Mr Hudson – Young Forever
‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).
The track is mainly a cover of the chorus and first verse from Alphaville’s Forever Young, which is fairly pointless but still great, ’cause it’s a great song. The rest is filled in by rapping from Jay-Z, which is okay, but I’m definitely lining up the original to play later on.
Track 26: Cheryl and will.i.am – 3 Words
Lovely melancholy tune, quite like this one.
Track 27: Robbie Williams – You Know Me
Nice tune, but for some reason the music channels always put this on their Christmas playlists, so it’s got festive associations for me now.
Track 28: Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
Well, we often have repeated artists on these Now! compilations, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a repeated song! We already had the Glee Cast doing this song on track 12.
As I explained up-page, the Glee cover made this one a big hit too, and deservedly so, seeing as how it was overlooked by the UK music-buying public in the ’80s. The piano intro is just beautiful, the lyrics are immense, and the tune is epic.
Track 29: Florence & The Machine – Dog Days Are Over
I find Florence & The Machine’s stuff a bit samey, and this is no exception. There’s not really anything interesting about the tune, though the vocals are nice.
Track 30: Marina & The Diamonds – Hollywood
Gorgeous, unique track! Great lyrics, awesomely different vocals. Love this one.
Track 31: Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed
Beautiful tune. It was Ellie Goulding’s debut and, as far as I’m concerned, one of her best ever songs.
Track 32: Biffy Clyro – Many Of Horror
Wonderful rock track – I love the tune, and the way it builds is stunning! I’m almost certain we’ll hear the X Factor cover version in three days’ time so I’ll skip ranting about that for now.
Track 33: Plan B – Stay Too Long
Nice retro-sounding rock track, quite like this one. If I weren’t the queen of misheard lyrics, I’d make an effort to listen to the concept album of which it was part. As it is, I’d probably be better off just reading the lyrics to all the songs in order to understand the story.
Track 34: Naughty Boy, Wiley and Emeli Sandé – Never Be Your Woman
Fairly pointless cover of the White Town classic with added rapping. Always a great tune, but the original is obviously better.
Track 35: Example – Won’t Go Quietly
Great, atmospheric dance track. Really like this one.
I was planning to build some bookcases today, but I realised I’d totally forgotten where I’d put my bag of screws for said bookcases. However, I suspected they might be buried at the bottom of my endless bags of bags of different types of fixings, so I decided it was a good time to get round to sorting them all into the various hobby boxes that Geth and Dad had found me for the purpose.
Approximately three million different types of screws, nails, nuts and bolts, each with their own individual compartment.
The point of this is that it will be a lot easier to find things among my ridiculous array of fittings from now on. It also takes up a lot less space than all the plastic bags I was using:
Screws organised at last! I feel 0.06% more at peace this evening.
A boring task, but it’s one more step towards an organised house. The bookcases, meanwhile, will be tomorrow’s project.
Day 74 takes us to Now! #74, which was released on 23rd November 2009.
This is the way the world looked in November 2009 – or at least it did if your boyfriend was undergoing his PhD graduation from the University of Edinburgh, which I realise is a bit specific. Old College is always beautiful, and has been for centuries. I gave that coat a reprieve during the cull, but I don’t see it surviving my new de-hoarding mentality for much longer – it’s kind of unflattering, no matter what weight I am.
So, we come to the end of another decade of music. How did chart music sound as we waved goodbye to the ’00s?
Track 1: Cheryl – Fight For This Love
Gorgeous, atmospheric song – I love the instrumentals. A longtime favourite.
Track 2: Michael Bublé – Haven’t Met You Yet
It’s a bit cheesy, but it’s a nice tune.
Track 3: The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
That title should be ‘I Got A Feeling’ – ‘gotta’ is an informal contraction of ‘got to’, which makes no sense here!
Great tune though – classic party song.
Track 4: David Guetta and Akon – Sexy Chick
Good atmosphere and good tune on the chorus, but I find the vocals a bit generic.
Track 5: La Roux – Bulletproof
Great electro track, awesome beat.
Track 6: Taio Cruz – Break Your Heart
More awesome electro instrumentals on the backing track. Good tune.
Track 7: N-Dubz – I Need You
There’s some good lines in here somewhere, but in general the track’s a bit messy.
Track 8: Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
Another one that’s very typical of the electro-based atmospheric sound that was on everything at the time.
Track 9: Jay Sean and Lil’ Wayne – Down
Oh, it’s this one! The tune should annoy me, but I actually quite like it.
Track 10: Alesha Dixon – To Love Again
Slow ballad that’s not interesting enough for my liking.
Track 11: Chipmunk and Dayo Olatunji – Oopsy Daisy
Super irritating vocals and theme, not a fan of this one.
Track 12: Tinchy Stryder and Amelle Berrabah – Never Leave You
Another good atmosphere, but the tune’s a bit uninspired.
Track 13: Little Boots – Remedy
Great bassline, but the tune’s pretty dull.
Track 14: Pixie Lott – Boys And Girls
Nice retro ’60s feel, and there’s a good singalong chorus.
Track 15: Mini Viva – Left My Heart In Tokyo
Another awesome electropop tune – love that bass!
Track 16: Sean Kingston – Fire Burning
Daft theme, but it’s a great dance track.
Track 17: Pitbull and Nicole Scherzinger – Hotel Room Service
I quite like the vocal hook on this one, even if it is a bit repetitive. Good tune.
Track 18: Sugababes – Get Sexy
Daft theme, irritating lyrics – although I do like the callback to Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy, and the electro hook is great.
Track 19: The Saturdays – Forever Is Over
Too ballad-y for me, though I do appreciate the rock tinge.
Track 20: Young Soul Rebels – I Got Soul
Interesting cover of the Killers track All These Things That I’ve Done, released in aid of the War Child charity. In this context, the repeated line ‘I got soul but I’m not a soldier‘ is a bit haunting (whereas usually I can’t hear the line without being reminded of the Bill Bailey parody that pointed out the line makes as much sense as ‘I got ham but I’m not a hamster’).
Track 21: Agnes – I Need You Now
Too saccharine for me, though there are some interesting instrumentals going on in the background.
Track 22: JLS – Beat Again
Super cheesy, but it’s quite a good tune.
Track 23: Lady Gaga – Paparazzi
Love this one! Great tune, brilliant chorus.
Track 24: Beyoncé – Sweet Dreams
Wonderful atmosphere, great beat. Very danceable.
Track 25: Shakira – She Wolf
More great electro instrumentals – awesome tune.
Track 26: Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna – Run This Town
‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).
Another great brooding atmosphere. Unfortunately the vocals are fairly uninspired.
Track 27: Mr Hudson and Kanye West – Supernova
Repeated artist alert! We just had Kanye West on the last track.
Nice tune though – quite like this one.
Track 28: Robbie Williams – Bodies
Some interesting almost-monastic singing on the intro, which jars a bit once it gets into the bass-heavy main track. The chorus is great, though.
Track 29: Dizzee Rascal – Holiday
Great electro hook, good dance beat. Really like this track.
Track 30: Calvin Harris – Ready For The Weekend
Great dance track. I especially appreciate the line ‘I put on my shoes and I’m ready for the weekend‘. Nothing wrong with a new pair of shoes every Friday! (There are lots of things wrong with that. I know.)
Track 31: Whitney Houston – Million Dollar Bill [Frankie Knuckles Radio Mix]
Love that retro disco feel. Good stuff.
Track 32: Ian Carey Project – Get Shaky
Good instrumentals, but the tune’s pretty boring.
Track 33: Chase & Status and Plan B – End Credits
Lovely tune, gorgeous guitar, stunning atmosphere – and then the dull vocals spoil it! Oh well.
Track 34: The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
I find the vocals a little irritating, and the tune’s not interesting enough for my liking.
Track 35: Muse – Uprising
I’m just going to register my annoyance that Muse had been releasing great hits since 2000 and it took the Now! compilers until 2009 to feature one of their songs.
This track has a wonderful eerie electro line, great bass, and awesome brooding vocals. Love it.
Track 36: Snow Patrol – Just Say Yes
Even Snow Patrol were doing the electro instrumentals in 2009! Shame the rest of the tune is dull.
Track 37: Florence & The Machine – You’ve Got The Love
Pointless cover of the Source and Candi Staton song, as I may have discussed on the THREE OCCASIONS that the original has been featured on Now! compilations (still can’t get over that). As such, we now have a fourth track in the Now! canon that sounds exactly the same! Urgh.
Track 38: Lily Allen – 22
Nice retro tune. Great lyrics too, but they’re a little depressing!
Track 39: Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full Of Lead
Great classic ragtime sound! Love that trumpet riff.
Track 40: Mika – We Are Golden
Lovely tune, awesome singalong chorus. Really like this one.
Track 41: Cobra Starship and Leighton Meester – Good Girls Go Bad
It’s a bit messy, but as with pretty much every other track on this compilation, there’s lots of awesome electro lines and bass going on.
Track 42: Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man
I normally find Mumford & Sons a bit dull, but this is a great bit of folk-rock – really like this song.
Track 43: Just Jack – The Day I Died
Too twee for me – those lyrics are just irritating.
Track 44: Esmée Denters – Outta Here
I like the backing track, but the tune is bland and repetitive.
Track 45: Deadmau5 and Rob Swire – Ghosts ‘N’ Stuff
Too much going on with this track, and none of it is very interesting.
Newcastle parkrun was off this morning – that happens on several occasions every summer because of fairs and other events taking place on the Town Moor – so I took the opportunity to visit Rising Sun parkrun, which I hadn’t done since last year. (Geth was visiting his family in Lancashire, so he was off doing the notorious hill at Pendle parkrun. That’s a discussion for another day!)
I was at Rising Sun twice last year – running once, volunteering once – and back then they were still doing a double-lap loop in the middle of the course, which required a lot of sticking-to-the-correct-lane. However, when the Beast from the East hit the UK, they apparently had to change the course so that it was all one lap, and they found it so much more efficient that they kept it like that. Today was my first time running the new course, and I have to say it was so much better. It’s a lovely route, and I was enjoying it so much that I barely checked my watch for distance. I was bang on 33:00 as well, which is not bad considering I’ve been too busy to run for the last couple of weeks!
There was a bit of congestion at the start, but that’s to be expected when it’s much busier than usual, which it always is when Newcastle’s not running. As such, I’d quite like to go back on a week when it’s quieter, as I think I could get a really good time.
Day 73 means Now! #73, which was released on 20th July 2009.
This is how the world looked in July 2009. I seem to have fallen into a theme for these summer releases where the picture is ‘photo of me and Geth out for Kieran’s birthday’ (Kieran’s birthday always being an epic pub crawl around Edinburgh back in those days). I still wear that jacket ALL THE TIME in the summer – it’s sort of both lightweight and rock-chick-looking. I got it in a vintage shop (The Rusty Zip on Teviot Place, now taken over by W Armstrong & Son, the biggest vintage brand in the city) in the early ’00s, and from the fabric I would guess it’s from the ’90s originally.
Time for some summer hits! With bonus electropop, because 2009.
Track 1: Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Great electropop tune, very danceable. It’s become a bit of a classic.
Track 2: Cascada – Evacuate The Dancefloor
Good atmosphere on this one, with some great electro hooks.
Track 3: David Guetta and Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over
Great beat, but I find the tune on the chorus pretty irritating.
Track 4: Calvin Harris – I’m Not Alone
Dull tune, and the acoustic-y intro is jarring with the main electro dance bit.
Track 5: La Roux – In For The Kill
Wonderful, atmospheric electro track. I’ve always really liked this one.
Track 6: Tinchy Stryder and N-Dubz – Number 1
Fittingly, this did get to number one in the charts at the time. Good beat, good tune.
Track 7: AR Rahman and The Pussycat Dolls – Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)
Love that Eastern tinge – great chant-along track.
Track 8: Chipmunk and Emeli Sandé – Diamond Rings
Good rhythm on this one – I like the jazz-tinged backing track.
Track 9: Lily Allen – Not Fair
Awesome tune, love the lyrics.
Track 10: Pixie Lott – Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)
Great, classic big band sound – really like this tune.
Track 11: Pink – Please Don’t Leave Me
Love the guitar riff, but the vocals are a bit cheesy for my liking.
Track 12: The Veronicas – Untouched
Lovely instrumentals, great ’80s tinge. Good track, only spoilt by the irritating vocals.
Track 13: Katy Perry – Waking Up In Vegas
Good rock edge, great lyrics. Quite like this one.
Track 14: Girls Aloud – Untouchable
Lovely atmospheric ’80s-tinged guitar intro, pretty tune on the vocals. Very nice.
Track 15: Agnes – Release Me
I find the tune on this pretty irritating, and the instrumentals very generic. Not keen.
Track 16: Freemasons and Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)
Great atmospheric track – yet more ’80s-tinged electropop! I’d forgotten how much I liked 2009 for music.
Track 17: Alesha Dixon – Let’s Get Excited
Good beat, good solid bit of pop. Happily nodding along.
Track 18: The Saturdays – Work
Love the electro instrumentals – another awesome pop track.
Track 19: Take That – Up All Night
It’s a little too acoustic-y for my liking, but I do appreciate the ’60s tinge.
Track 20: Britney Spears – If U Seek Amy
Let’s gloss over the juvenile title. The instrumentals are great and the atmosphere is nice and epic.
Track 21: Jordin Sparks – Battlefield
Irritating vocals, but I suppose the tune is quite nice.
Track 22: Shontelle and Akon – Stuck With Each Other
Uninspired tune, boring vocals. Not a fan of this track.
Track 23: Beyoncé – Halo
Gorgeous tune, great atmosphere. This is the kind of ballad I can get behind.
Track 24: Daniel Merriweather – Red
This one, meanwhile, is a boring, slow ballad. Not for me.
Track 25: Keri Hilson, Kanye West and Ne-Yo – Knock You Down
There’s some nice electro lines here, but I find the vocals pretty dull.
Track 26: Ciara and Justin Timberlake – Love Sex Magic
Love that ’70s-style funk. Great beat, very danceable.
Track 27: The Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow
Another great chant-along track – happily chair-dancing here again!
Track 28: Soulja Boy and Sammie – Kiss Me Thru The Phone
Some very irritating and jarring electro hooks and vocals going on here, but the atmosphere’s quite good.
Track 29: Akon, Kardinal Offishall and Colby O’Donis – Beautiful
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Akon on track 22.
Very generic dance tune, boring vocals that sound like everything else released at the time.
Track 30: Flo Rida and Wynter Gordon – Sugar
Obviously I love the daft sampling of Eiffel 65’s Blue (Da Ba Dee). The rest of the track is pretty messy and uninspired though!
Track 31: Ironik, Chipmunk and Elton John – Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer)
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Chipmunk on track 8.
The track’s based around a sample of the 1972 original, hence the Elton John credit. It sounds fairly terrible with all that rapping over the top.
Track 32: Pitbull – I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
Bonus points for the sample from The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind), and I do like the Latin tinge, even if the rap is a bit generic.
Track 33: Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden – Bonkers
Great dance tune, brilliant vocal hook – big fan of this one.
Track 34: The Prodigy – Warrior’s Dance
Gorgeous, atmospheric tune on the intro – then it launches into a highly danceable bass-driven track. Great stuff.
Track 35: 3OH!3 – Don’t Trust Me
Another very danceable track, and a good tune.
Track 36: Kasabian – Fire
Iconic guitar riff, builds wonderfully. Love this tune.
Track 37: Florence & The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Lovely atmosphere, gorgeous vocals. Very nice track.
Track 38: Noisettes – Never Forget You
Great mid-century retro feel, with a nice reggae beat mixed in there as well.
Track 39: Little Boots – New In Town
Not keen on the stop-start intro, and the tune’s not very interesting.
Track 40: James Morrison – Please Don’t Stop The Rain
I quite like the piano and the atmosphere, but the vocals are too saccharine for me.
Track 41: Paolo Nutini – Candy
It’s the kind of instrumentals that would normally be too acoustic-y for me, but I quite like them. The vocals, on the other hand, are just annoying.
Track 42: Empire Of The Sun – We Are The People
More acoustic guitar, but again I quite like it – it’s very atmospheric. Lovely tune.
Track 43: Deadmau5 and Kaskade – I Remember
Fairly uninspired dance tune, but it’s another track that’s got quite a nice atmosphere.
Track 44: Chicane – Poppiholla
Instrumental cover of the Sigur Rós classic Hoppípolla. It’s a lovely tune, and this reworking is very nice.
This is another cider that I spotted in Sainsbury’s a couple of weeks ago. I think I’m going to run out of new ones from their selection soon!
Bulmers Crushed Red Berries and Lime.
This berry cider is very sweet – not quite as cloyingly so as the Kopparberg and Rekorderlig equivalents, which are probably the sweetest ciders I’ve ever tried, but still very sugary-tasting. I think it’s the lime that takes the edge off the sweetness slightly. Either way, it was very refreshing as a midsummer drink last night!
Day 72 brings us to Now! #72, which came out on 6th April 2009.
This is how the world looked in April 2009. That is the kind of happy face you only get from me on the first day it’s warm enough to sit out in a beer garden after a long winter.
2009 really brought the electropop, from what I remember, so let’s get cracking!
Track 1: Lily Allen – The Fear
Great tune, great lyrics. I’ve always really liked this one.
Track 2: Lady Gaga and Colby O’Donis – Just Dance
Awesome danceable piece of electropop.
Track 3: Flo Rida and Kesha – Right Round
It’s based around the hook from Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record), so I was always going to like this one. Flo Rida’s rap style actually goes really nicely with it.
Track 4: Alesha Dixon – The Boy Does Nothing
Alesha Dixon’s post-Strictly solo comeback song. Love this tune, and the retro big band feel is much appreciated.
Track 5: The Saturdays – Just Can’t Get Enough
Pointless cover of the Depeche Mode classic, and one of the official Comic Relief singles for 2009 (so charity fundraising, as ever, is the ‘point’).
Track 6: Kelly Clarkson – My Life Would Suck Without You
This one’s pretty acclaimed, but I’ve always found the tune and theme really annoying.
Track 7: Tinchy Stryder and Taio Cruz – Take Me Back
Nice atmosphere – I like the electro lines.
Track 8: Kid Cudi and Crookers – Day ‘N’ Nite
Boring, repetitive tune, with some irritating vocal tics going on.
Track 9: Britney Spears – Womaniser
Great pop track – love the hooks on this one.
Track 10: TI and Rihanna – Live Your Life
It’s based around the hook from O-Zone’s Dragostea Din Tei, which gives the track quite an interesting sound.
Track 11: Akon – Right Now (Na Na Na)
Nice tune, quite like this one.
Track 12: Shontelle – T-Shirt
Interesting vocals, but I find the tune very generic.
Track 13: Ne-Yo – Mad
Boring tune, annoyingly saccharine vocals.
Track 14: The Saturdays – Issues
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had the Saturdays on track 5.
I quite like the rhyming of the lyrics on this one, but the tune’s a bit dull. The Saturdays did much better songs later on.
Track 15: Leona Lewis – Forgive Me
Great vocals, great atmosphere, but the tune’s pretty forgettable.
Track 16: Girls Aloud – The Loving Kind
Another boring tune, and the vocals make it a bit too ballad-y for me.
Track 17: September – Can’t Get Over
Good beat, good electro lines. The vocals are a little generic though.
Track 18: Steve Angello, Laidback Luke and Robin S – Show Me Love
Semi-cover of Robin S’s 1993 hit, mashed up with various other things. It’s not very inspired. See my Now! #24 review for the original song.
Track 19: N-Dubz – Strong Again
Boring tune, but I quite like some of the vocal hooks.
Track 20: Katy Perry – Thinking Of You
Dull ballad, not keen on this one.
Track 21: Alexandra Burke – Hallelujah
The annual bit of karaoke from the X Factor winner. To give credit to Alexandra Burke, this is not a pointless cover: there have been so many different and beautiful versions of the Leonard Cohen classic, and she did put her own stamp on it, but it just doesn’t have as much feeling in it as classic versions like those of Jeff Buckley or Rufus Wainwright.
Speaking of the X Factor…
Track 22: X Factor Finalists 2008 – Hero
There was an annoying trend in the late ’00s/early ’10s where the final twelve contestants in the X Factor would release a group single with everyone getting a line, which, just like the winner’s single, was inevitably a pointless cover of a classic song. This meant that everyone who was interested in pop music but didn’t care about the X Factor had to put up with not one but two irritating karaoke numbers in the charts around Christmas time. 2008’s offering was a pointless cover of the Mariah Carey song. (As often happens, the ‘point’ was charity fundraising, this time for Help For Heroes and the Royal British Legion. Charity fundraising = awesome! Releasing a soulless, uninspired remake of an existing song = not awesome.)
Track 23: Take That – Greatest Day
It should feel epic and sweeping – but I just find the tune irritating. I’m not sure why.
Track 24: Alesha Dixon – Breathe Slow
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Alesha Dixon on track 4.
This one’s got a nice backing track, but the tune is fairly generic.
Track 25: James Morrison and Nelly Furtado – Broken Strings
Irritatingly cheesy and slow ballad. Not my cup of tea.
Track 26: Taylor Swift – Love Story
Super saccharine soft pop-rock! Again, not my thing. I prefer Taylor Swift’s more pure pop stuff from the early-to-mid-’10s.
Track 27: Pink – Sober
Nice guitar, interesting theme, but the tune’s pretty dull.
Track 28: The Killers – Human
I still remember people getting irritated about the grammar of the line ‘are we human or are we dancer‘. Would it sound better and less jarring if the lyric was ‘dancers‘? Yes. Is it grammatically incorrect? Technically, no. Brandon Flowers is using ‘dancer‘ to mean a sort of faux-species here, and the use of the singular as an adjective in the same way that ‘human‘ can be used as an adjective is, I believe, meant to emphasise this.
Anyway, it’s quite a good tune.
Track 29: The Script – Breakeven
I’m generally not keen on this kind of soft rock, and this is no exception. Bland tune, very forgettable.
Track 30: Jason Mraz – I’m Yours
I find this kind of cheery, bouncy, acoustic-y track really irritating. Sorry!
Great bassline, lovely bit of electropop. Really like this one.
Track 32: Metro Station – Shake It
Really like the instrumentals on this track – great guitar, great synth. It all adds up to a nice retro ’80s tinge, which I’m all about!
Track 33: U2 – Get On Your Boots
Interesting vocals, good guitar line, quite like this one.
Track 34: MGMT – Kids
Oh, it’s this one! Lovely electro hook, great bassline.
Track 35: The Prodigy – Omen
I saw the Prodigy at M’era Luna 2009, and this song was the anthem of the weekend, with everyone singing it all over the place. Great dance track, builds beautifully, wonderful atmosphere.
Track 36: Kevin Rudolf and Lil’ Wayne – Let It Rock
Another great bassline and another awesome atmosphere – good track.
Track 37: Wiley and Daniel Merriweather – Cash In My Pocket
I like the ’60s retro tinge on this one.
Track 38: Kanye West – Heartless
Nice tune, quite like this track.
Track 39: TI and Justin Timberlake – Dead And Gone
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had TI on track 10.
Nice piano intro, nice epic atmosphere. Great stuff, though it would be better without the rap.
Track 40: Daniel Merriweather and Wale – Change
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Daniel Merriweather on track 37. Give someone else a chance, Now! compilers!
This is a great track, though – lovely tinkly piano, good beat.
Track 41: Pet Shop Boys – Love Etc.
Nice to see Pet Shop Boys back in the charts. I have missed that perfect synth! Wonderful tune.
Track 42: Duffy – Rain On Your Parade
More great instrumentals! Lovely atmosphere on this one.
Track 43: Vanessa Jenkins, Bryn West, Tom Jones and Robin Gibb – Islands In The Stream
Daft semi-cover (semi due to Robin Gibb’s involvement) of the Bee Gees-written song made famous by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, featuring comedy characters Vanessa Jenkins (Ruth Jones) and Bryn West (Rob Brydon) from the sitcom Gavin & Stacey. This was another song released for Comic Relief 2009. The video‘s funny, but the song’s a bit pedestrian until Tom Jones shows up at the end.
Day 71 equals Now! #71, which came out on 17th November 2008.
This is how the world looked in November 2008. The glasses glare in this picture is terrible but it was the best of a bad bunch! I still own all those clothes, though I’m not sure if I’ll wear the dress again ’cause it’s a bit floaty and ’00s and my taste is a bit more classic nowadays.
Let’s see what the Christmas party songs were that year.
Track 1: Girls Aloud – The Promise
Nice feelgood retro-tinged tune, quite like this one.
Track 2: Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl
Appalling theme, but it’s a great pop tune.
Track 3: Pink – So What
Another classic from Lego Rock Band that I used to drum along to. Love this chant-along track.
Track 4: Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
Daft lyrics that everyone took the piss out of at the time, but it’s a great rock tune and has turned into a bit of a classic.
Track 5: Kid Rock – All Summer Long
Feelgood nostalgic song based around the riff from Sweet Home Alabama. I’ve actually always quite liked this one.
Track 6: Rihanna – Disturbia
Great atmosphere – quite like this tune.
Track 7: Ne-Yo – Miss Independent
Great electro hook, but the vocals are a bit too saccharine for me.
Track 8: The Pussycat Dolls – When I Grow Up
Another great chant-along chorus. Really like this track.
Track 9: Madcon – Beggin’
Good beat, nice retro tune – happily nodding along.
Track 10: Chris Brown – Forever
Nice feelgood atmosphere, but I find the tune pretty dull.
Track 11: Jennifer Hudson – Spotlight
I find the vocals on this ballad pretty generic, but the backing track is lovely.
Track 12: James Morrison – You Make It Real
Boring and slow, with an irritating tune. Not keen.
Track 13: Will Young – Changes
Another one that’s too slow for me, but the retro-tinged tune’s quite interesting.
Track 14: Jordin Sparks – Tattoo
Cheesy vocals, too slow, but there’s some interesting stuff going on in the background.
Track 15: Geraldine McQueen – The Winner’s Song
How many tracks have there been during this Now! project where I’ve mentioned that I’ve got a soft spot for the song because it was used to great effect in Peter Kay’s Britain’s Got The Pop Factor, his brilliant X Factor parody? Well, I’ve lost count, but it’s been a lot, and now we’ve finally got to autumn 2008, when it was first shown on TV (I can’t believe it’s nearly a decade old – Geth and I still watch the DVD every Christmas). This ballad was written specially for the show’s fictional winner, Geraldine McQueen (by Gary Barlow no less), neatly parodying the overblown ballads that were always released as X Factor winners’ singles at the time.
Incidentally, while Geraldine is supposed to be Northern Irish, you can hear Peter Kay’s Lancashire accent a mile off in his singing voice.
Track 16: Sugababes – Girls
Great pop track based around Here Come The Girls, a ’70s song that never really took off at the time but was eventually used in a series of Boots adverts in 2007. Love this tune.
Track 17: The Saturdays – Up
Nice danceable track, good solid pop.
Track 18: Boyzone – Love You Anyway
Great instrumentals – quite like this one.
Track 19: Katy Perry – Hot N Cold
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Katy Perry on track 2. It’s a particularly egregious repetition as both tracks are solo singles, though I suppose they have both become pop classics.
This one I always enjoyed dancing to on Just Dance for the Wii. Between that and Lego Rock Band, this era of the Now! project is really making me want to plug the Wii back in!
Track 20: Sash! and Stunt – Raindrops (Encore Une Fois)
Mash-up of Sash!’s Encore Une Fois and Stunt’s Raindrops. It’s not horrible – even if I still don’t think these tracks work together at all – but I’ll definitely be lining up the original Encore Une Fois to listen to after this playlist is done.
Track 21: Basshunter – Angel In The Night
Takes a while to get going. Once it does, there’s some random rock guitar that doesn’t go with the dance track, but I like rock guitar so I’m going to let it slide just this once.
Track 22: Eric Prydz – Pjanoo
Great piano hook, as you might expect from the title. Good stuff.
Track 23: Steve Mac – Paddy’s Revenge
Dance track with Irish music over the top. It sounds bizarre but it actually works okay.
Track 24: Coldplay – Viva La Vida
One of the few Coldplay tracks that I actually unashamedly like. This is a great tune with a wonderful atmosphere.
Track 25: The Script – The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
A bit cheesy and soft-rock for my liking.
Track 26: Razorlight – Wire To Wire
Nice tune, nice atmosphere. Good track.
Track 27: Noah & The Whale – 5 Years’ Time
This is from the early years when Laura Marling was still with the band, and her backing vocals are really great on this. Lovely tune.
Track 28: Iglu & Hartly – In This City
There are some interesting instrumentals going on, but the tune’s very generic and forgettable.
Track 29: The Ting Tings – Shut Up And Let Me Go
My favourite of the Ting Tings’ hits. Great beat, awesome chant-along track.
