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.
Today’s boxes from the study were largely full of CDs. Piles and piles of them. And I don’t think I’ve found them all yet.
A small selection of the unearthed CDs.
As the move has caused me to switch, by and large, to a de-hoarding state of mind, I’ve got a feeling I will be getting rid of a lot of the music CDs. We’ll see how much space I’ve got for them when I finally put up the CD shelves (which is a long way down the line). In the meantime, at least the extra space on the DVD shelves is getting some use!
Day 70,and we’ve reached Now! #70, which came out on 21st July 2008.
This is what the world looked like in July 2008. My hair was still longer than Geth’s (it’s been a good few years since that was the case) and we sort of both had ill-conceived hair dye going on (dudes just don’t get highlights done any more – I wonder why that particular trend remained firmly in the ’00s?), but pubs, as I’ve mentioned before, never really change.
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!
…and immediately ran into some technical problems.
So I had my wee workstation all set up in the living room, with the scanner and shredder ready to start scanning and shredding all the mountains of paper in the study that I want to keep digitally but not physically. Except they weren’t. The scanner/printer we have is apparently set up to scan to Geth’s laptop rather than mine (and I don’t want to be reliant on Geth’s laptop for this project, first because it creates extra work to keep moving all the files, secondly because Geth needs it on days when he’s working from home, and thirdly because Geth never cleans his laptop and so it is super gross and I don’t like touching it). The shredder, meanwhile, won’t work because it’s jammed from the last time we had to shred a lot of stuff (which I’m pretty sure was when we were still living in Southampton, shortly before we moved to Newcastle, so late 2014?).
I have possibly sort of fixed the first issue, because I found some memory cards in the first of the study boxes that I went through today, so I can just switch the scanner to scan to a memory card rather than a laptop. As for the second issue, Geth has promised to attempt some drunken maintenance with an old unused plastic card (which was how we fixed it the last time this happened) when he gets back from his work dinner tonight.
Hopefully that will all work, or else emptying the study is going to be trickier than I’d foreseen.
Day 69 brings us to Now! #69, which came out on 17th March 2008.
This is the way the world looked in March 2008. Yup, it’s another car picture, this time of Dad’s Saab in the snow. It didn’t actually cope very well with snow, hence why he now has a Land Rover.
On with the hits!
Track 1: Duffy – Mercy
I’ve always really liked this track – classic, danceable tune.
Track 2: Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music
Great dance track! Happily nodding along here.
Track 3: Basshunter and DJ Mental Theo’s Bazzheadz – Now You’re Gone
Great tune, love the atmosphere – and that bass is awesome.
Track 4: Girls Aloud – Call The Shots
I don’t find this tune very interesting, but the atmosphere’s quite good.
Track 5: Nickelback – Rockstar
I mentioned in the Now! #56 review that there are only two Nickelback tracks worth listening to, and neither is for reasons to do with the song itself. How You Remind Me is the first (see Now! #51 review for why) and this is the second, because of the video with all the celebrities and random fans miming along.
Track 6: OneRepublic – Stop And Stare
A bit slow and depressing for my liking.
Track 7: David Jordan – Sun Goes Down
Interesting track, great harmonies, epic guitar. Quite like this one.
Track 8: Kelly Rowland – Work [Freemasons Remix]
Upbeat and danceable, but it’s a bit repetitive.
Track 9: Soulja Boy – Crank That (Soulja Boy)
Good atmosphere, but there’s not enough melody for me, and I find the rap style irritating.
Track 10: Britney Spears – Piece Of Me
Slightly awkward theme, and it could do with being a bit more uptempo.
Track 11: T2 and Jodie Aysha – Heartbroken
Too messy on the intro, and then the tune’s irritating once it gets going.
Track 12: H ‘Two’ O and Platnum – What’s It Gonna Be
Another annoying tune with headache-inducing high-pitched vocals.
Track 13: Taio Cruz – Come On Girl
Good head-nodder, but the tune’s pretty generic.
Track 14: Kylie Minogue – Wow
Another solid pop track from Kylie Minogue. Great tune.
Track 15: Robyn – Be Mine!
Irritating vocals, boring tune. Not keen on this one.
Track 16: Cascada – What Hurts The Most
Slow ballad intro before it launches into the usual Eurodance. The tune’s fairly uninspired, but it’s quite danceable.
Track 17: Booty Luv – Some Kinda Rush
More ’70s-tinged dance from Booty Luv. Good stuff.
Track 18: Samim – Heater
Repetitive, messy and irritating – not my thing at all.
Track 19: Mary J Blige – Just Fine
Jarring electro instrumentals that don’t really go with the soul-tinged vocals. Also, the tune’s pretty forgettable.
Track 20: Jay Sean – Ride It
Great tune and atmosphere – lovely track.
Track 21: Shayne Ward – Breathless
Slow ballad, too saccharine for me.
Track 22: Leon Jackson – When You Believe
‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).
Pointless cover of the Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston soundtrack song for The Prince Of Egypt. This was the X Factor winner’s single for 2007 and also the Christmas number one, as was standard for the late ’00s and early ’10s (otherwise known as the era when Simon Cowell ruined everything that was fun about the Christmas number one race). Leon Jackson was one of those X Factor winners who immediately faded into obscurity and never released anything else, hence why his stuff’s not even on Spotify.
Track 23: Adele – Chasing Pavements
It’s an okay tune, but a bit slow for me. I’ve never been that keen on the stuff off Adele’s 19 album – 21, for me, was her real masterpiece.
Track 24: Timbaland and OneRepublic – Apologise
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had OneRepublic on track 6.
This one’s nice and atmospheric – love the piano at the start. Great tune.
Track 25: Alicia Keys – No One
Nice tune, but the vocals are too saccharine and overblown for my liking.
Track 26: Mika – Happy Ending
Not keen on the tune, and it’s too slow for me.
Track 27: Kanye West and Chris Martin – Homecoming
Interesting instrumentals, great tune on the sung vocals – quite like this one.
Track 28: The Hoosiers – Goodbye Mr A
Quite like the circus-y instrumentals at the start – good upbeat track.
Track 29: The Feeling – I Thought It Was Over
Retro feel, good beat, nice tune. Really like this one!
Track 30: Alphabeat – Fascination
Another nice upbeat song with a retro tinge – happily chair-dancing again.
Track 31: Scouting For Girls – Elvis Ain’t Dead
Classic tune, but I have to be in the right mood for it, as I sometimes find the style annoying.
Track 32: One Night Only – Just For Tonight
Love the instrumentals, but I find the vocals a bit dull.
Track 33: Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor
Nice to hear some electropop, but this one’s a bit repetitive.
Track 34: Bloc Party – Flux
Good beat, good electro lines – very danceable.
Track 35: Utah Saints – Something Good ’08
Shaking my head a bit here, ’cause we already had the original on Now! #22, and this redone version is not different enough to the original, in my book, to justify its inclusion.
See the link for my review of the song.
Track 36: Mark Brown and Sarah Cracknell – The Journey Continues
Dull tune, and I don’t like the way the operatic vocals clash with the pop ones.
Track 37: Amy MacDonald – This Is The Life
Another nice folk-rock song from Amy MacDonald – great tune on the vocals.
Track 38: Kate Nash – Pumpkin Soup
There are some interesting lines here, but in general the track’s a bit messy with too much going on.
Track 39: Sugababes – Change
Slow, dull ballad. There’s always one.
Track 40: Goldfrapp – A&E
Again, this one’s too slow for my liking.
Track 41: Amy Winehouse – Love Is A Losing Game
Lovely tune, gorgeous vocals as ever from Amy Winehouse.
Track 42: Eva Cassidy and Katie Melua – What A Wonderful World
‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).
So Eva Cassidy did a slow, acoustic-y cover of the ’60s classic, and then when she became posthumously famous, Katie Melua decided to do one of those creepy duets from beyond the grave by replacing half the vocals with her own. It’s not at all inspired or fun to listen to.
