NOW That’s What I Call Music! 108

In the age of Digital Service Providers such as Spotify and the like you might be surprised to find the Now! Compilations are still popular. Admittedly they might not sell as many copies as say 20 years ago but the series still top the compilation charts.

Always guaranteed to provide a comprehensive view of what is happening in the singles chart, if you want to be kept up to date and know the difference between Glass Animals and Cardi B here is the opportunity to find out.

With the singles chart continuing to be dominated by solo artists, groups here are in short supply apart from The Killers, Clean Bandit, Steps and Glass Animals. Years and Years don’t really count these days as the name is just a moniker for Olly Alexander.

Drivers License from Olivia Rodrigo is the longest running debut single to reach Number 1 since Gnarls Barkley spent 9 weeks at Number 1 in 2006 with Crazy. Rodrigo certainly passed her drivers test with this tempting track.

In complete contrast there are what some might call, bangers - in other words great dance tracks such as Get Out Of My Head by Shane Codd and The Business by Tiesto.

Sampling old dance tunes and updating them is nothing new. Witness the updates of the Nightcrawlers track Push The Feeling On which is reborn nearly 30 years later as Friday by Riton featuring Mufasa and Hypeman.

The old ATB track Your Love is updated by fellow German DJ Topic on the dance smash which is high at the moment on most European dance charts.

Doncaster born YUNGBLUD teams up with Machine Gun Kelly on Acting Like That whilst Scottish postman Nathan Evans gives us the sea shanty ditty that is Wellerman.

CD2 starts off in a R&B groove with Ariana Grande with 34+35 followed by The Kid Lari, Jason Derulo and Nuka and Cardi B.

The tempo rises though with Crying At The Discotheque from Sophie Ellis-Bextor, another update of an old European dance track, this time the Alcazar hit that in itself was a sample of the Sheila B. Dovation’s 1979 hit, Spacer. You can imagine what the royalties will be for the writers of the original song!

Why Steps have never been chosen to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest fathoms me, with a track like To The Beat of My Heart they would surely end up in the top 5 runners up, or maybe a win with this euro friendly track.

It only leaves Becky Hill to deliver another European hit cover this time the Alphaville track, Forever Young which was featured in the Christmas advert of a well known burger chain. There you have it - there are a lot of quarter pounders here spread across just a bit of filler.

I rate the compilation 3 out of 5.