Day 70,and we’ve reached Now! #70, which came out on 21st July 2008.
Let’s see what those summer hits were that year.
Track 1: Estelle and Kanye West – American Boy
Great tune. There were a couple of good dances to this on Strictly at the time, so I mainly associate it with that.
Track 2: Dizzee Rascal, Calvin Harris and Chrome – Dance Wiv Me
Great track – love the rhythm, love the chorus. Highly danceable.
Track 3: Mint Royale – Singin’ In The Rain
Cover of the musical classic with weird messy remix-y bits. There’s about three good tracks here all mashed together into one bad one.
Track 4: Sam Sparro – Black And Gold
Great atmosphere, quite like this one.
Track 5: Duffy – Warwick Avenue
Nice tune, but it’s too slow for me.
Track 6: Sara Bareilles – Love Song
I like the piano, but the vocals are pretty generic.
Track 7: Gabriella Cilmi – Sweet About Me
Great tune, awesome theme. Big fan of this track.
Track 8: Ne-Yo – Closer
Lovely tune – I really like the instrumentals, and the chorus is gorgeous.
Track 9: Girls Aloud – Can’t Speak French
Good rhythm, but there’s something that’s always annoyed me about the theme of this one.
Track 10: Kylie Minogue – In My Arms
Not massively keen on this track – it’s a bit messy for me and I don’t think much of the tune.
Track 11: Sugababes – Denial
Quite like the beat on this one, and it’s not a bad tune either – good to nod along to.
Track 12: Jonas Brothers – SOS
Awful cheesy kiddie-sounding vocals, dodgy faux pop-pop-punk sound. Not a fan.
Track 13: Alphabeat – 10,000 Nights
Quite like the retro-tinged piano, but the tune annoys me.
Track 14: The Ting Tings – That’s Not My Name
Great chant-along track, but I prefer the other two big Ting Tings hits from that year – fingers crossed they’re on future Now! editions!
Track 15: The Kooks – Always Where I Need To Be
I like the guitar on the intro, but in general this one sounds a bit uninspired and forgettable to me.
Track 16: Pendulum – Propane Nightmares
Great atmosphere, love the instrumentals – and that electro hook is great.
Track 17: Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
Quite like the backing track, but the tune’s pretty dull.
Track 18: Scouting For Girls – Heartbeat
Interesting instrumentals, but again I’m not keen on the main tune.
Track 19: The Feeling – Turn It Up
Nice tune, interesting piano bit. Quite like this one.
Track 20: The Hoosiers – Cops And Robbers
Great theme, awesome atmosphere to go with it. Brilliant track.
Track 21: Paul Weller – Have You Made Up Your Mind
Nice classic sound, but I find the tune a bit bland.
Track 22: Coldplay – Violet Hill
Takes ages to get going. When it does, though, it’s a nice tune with a classic rock feel and a good atmosphere.
Track 23: Rihanna – Take A Bow
Lovely tune, quite like this one.
Track 24: Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown – No Air
It’s a nice tune, but I find the vocals really overblown.
Track 25: will.i.am and Cheryl – Heartbreaker
It’s an okay tune, but 3 Words was a much better collaboration between these two.
Track 26: Usher and Young Jeezy – Love In This Club
Quite like the tune on the backing track, but the vocal’s pretty boring.
Track 27: Mariah Carey – Touch My Body
Daft, awkward theme, and the song’s just not my thing – I find it a bit irritating.
Track 28: Leona Lewis – Better In Time
Nice piano, but the tune is pretty dull, and it’s too slow for me.
Track 29: Chris Brown – With You
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Chris Brown on track 24.
Boring and cheesy song – not my thing.
Track 30: Ironik – Stay With Me
Lovely tune on the backing track, but then there’s a lot of clashing sung vocals (which are a hideous chipmunk-tuned sample of Westlife’s Written In The Stars) and rapping and it all gets far too messy.
Track 31: Taio Cruz – I Can Be
Some interesting instrumentals, but again the vocals are not doing it for me.
Track 32: The Script – We Cry
Nice atmosphere, with a slight eerie-ness about it. The vocals are really uninspired though.
Track 33: Britney Spears – Break The Ice
Another great backing track with so-so vocals over the top.
Track 34: Timbaland, Nicole Scherzinger and Keri Hilson – Scream
Good atmosphere, but there’s too much going on in this track for my liking.
Track 35: Flo Rida and T-Pain – Low
This one’s a favourite of mine, largely for the lyric ‘the baggy sweatpants and the Reeboks with the straps‘. This is referring to the Reebok Freestyle Hi, which is my favourite trainer of all time (I have them in seven different colours), though I never wear them with sweatpants unless I need a warm layer for walking to exercise classes in the winter – leggings or jeans all the way otherwise! The epic atmosphere is just a bonus.
Track 36: Wiley – Wearing My Rolex
Good dance beat, daft theme, good bit of grime. I find this one quite endearing.
Track 37: DJ Q and MC Bonez – You Wot!
It’s a bit messy, but it’s very danceable.
Track 38: Basshunter – All I Ever Wanted
Classic dance tune. I should find the vocal hook irritating, but I actually quite like it.
Track 39: Scooter – Jumping All Over The World
Daft theme as ever from Scooter. Irritatingly messy, but I LOVE that sample from Sailor’s A Glass Of Champagne, one of my favourite ’70s glam rock tracks.
Track 40: Ultrabeat and Darren Styles – Discolights
Another great atmosphere, but again the vocals are letting it down.
Track 41: Alex Gaudino and Shena – Watch Out
The Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag sample is obviously awesome, but it jars pretty badly with the vocals, which themselves are kind of a rip-off of Mousse T’s Horny.
Track 42: September – Cry For You
I really like the electro hooks, but yet again the vocals are bland and uninspired.
Track 43: Fragma – Toca’s Miracle 2008
‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM). (Urgh, and we were doing so well today!)
We’ve already had the original on Now! #45, and as usual, the new-version-with-a-year-added-to-the-title is not different enough from the first version to justify including it again!
See the link for my review.
