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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
2:40 PM 3rd August 2020
arts

NOW That’s What I Call Music 106 (Universal/Sony Music)

 
If you want to listen to 41 songs that have been in the charts over the last few months then the Now complications are always a good place to start.

In the era of downloads and streaming you might think that no one would want to buy a compilation like this but the brand seems to be holding up well.

As always the first track on the first CD of 2 is always a recent Number 1, in this case Savage Love by Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo. Harry Styles seems to be the most successful of the One Direction members, Watermelon Sugar shows why this is; a pop nugget that sounds different from anything else around at the minute.

Some of the tracks here were hits in the rest of Europe before they entered the UK charts. German DJ Topic and A7S give us Breaking Me. I thought that the song always sounded like a James Arthur track but nevertheless the track made the UK Top 5.

Josh with 1979 featuring Jalja deliver the dance track, Midnight (The Hanging Tree) the number is still popular in Italy and rightly made the mainstream charts in this country.

Some of the tracks here are still climbing up the charts, take for example Wait For You by Tom Walker - a big AirPlay favourite with radio the song lagged behind in the charts and is currently playing catch up on the Top 100.

Elsewhere on CD1 Ellie Goulding shows her new direction on Power whilst the big Number 1 song Head and Heart by Joel Cory featuring MNEK has an uplifting dance vibe, something that we all need after all the doom and gloom since 23 March!

CD2 is more of a mixed bag, where else will you hear Michael Ball, Captain Tom Moore and the NHS Voices of Care Choir on the same CD as AJ Tracey featuring MoStack, Paul Weller and Doja Cat? That is the beauty of the Now compilations, they are like the old Top of the Pops shows where Thin Lizzy were on the same show as Terry Wogan and his version of the Floral Dance. All are a resume of the current artists that have graced the charts.

Who knows how many of these hits will be remembered in 10 years - admittedly there are more than a few one hit wonders here. For now though this is the sound of what the UK charts sound like in summer 2020.

I rate the album 3 out of 5