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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Now in years!, 14 April 2003
Wow! This is a really amazing compilation. The tracklisting just strings perfectly from hit to hit. It also features 6 number ones, which is more than we've had in ages.CD 1 starts out with smash hits from TATU, Justin Timberlake, Nelly & Kelly and Liberty X, then we get some nice dance pop from Room 5 (from the Lynx advert) and Junior Senior, and then a huge collection of pop hits including Girls Aloud, Busted, Sinead Quinn, Atomic Kitten and Blue. Next up is a bit of R&B/Dance from Jay-Z & Beyonce and Jaimeson, then the disc finishes up with some more pop from S Club, One True Voice and more. CD 2 is largely indie and ballads, starting off with Daniel Bedingfield, David Sneddon, Robbie Williams and Oasis. Then some more indie (Turin Brakes, Coldplay...). Then for the R&B, with Cam'ron, Nelly & Justin Timberlake etc. Halfway throught the disc we get some lovely dance (one of the biggest highlights of the album for me) with Panjabi MC, Scooter, DJ Sammy and Divine Inspiration. The album concludes with more indie from the likes of Mock Turtles (from the Vodafone TV advert), Counting Crows and Massive Attack. Overall the CD is excellent, with few bad tracks, but there are still so many more awesome ones it missed:
Eminem, Blue & Elton John, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Jurgen Vries and CMC, Love Inc, Pink, Gareth Gates, Will Young etc. etc. However quite a lot of these can be found on Hits 55 - a great accompaniment to Now 54. So, despite all the ones it missed, I still give it 5 stars simply because there are so few bad tracks, and so many good ones. To finish up with, a couple of general observations:
1. This album features both Popstars: The Rivals bands, and the biggest two from Fame Academy.
2. It seems to be a new idea to put an old band's new song on Disc 2 - on here it's Queen, on Now 53 it was Status Quo!! Thank you for reading my review! I am listening to the CD as I write this and it is absolutely amazing - really and truly one of the best Now CDs in years!!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
More of the same - again!, 26 April 2003
As I write this the album, the latest instalment from the longest-running music-series in the world, has stormed to the top of the UK compilation Chart - and it's not too difficult to see why.We are presented here with another generous and sweeping reflection of current musical genres, from a series that just keeps getting better and better. T.V. Reality shows are well represented. Darius, Zoe, Ainslie, Sinead and David, plus the sublime Liberty X, not to mention a very creditable first single from Kym Marsh are all here. R & B, the other growing musical trend, is covered by Nelly (with Kelly Rowland or Justin Timberlake), Justin on his own with his brilliant first solo single, Jay-Z and Beyonce, Cam'ron and friends, Beanie Man and Punjabi MC. Established acts also get a look in - Robbie next to Oasis (now there's a thought!), Melanie C, Coldplay and a welcome chart return from Erasure, too. Dance acts are here, the series facination with Scooter continues and DJ Sammy pops up too with Jamieson and Divine Inspiration meaning the genre is not neglected, and more of that in a moment. The growing use of pop music in TV ads. is also noted with the inclusion of the Mock Turtles for a mobile phone company, and THE dance anthem, and my personal favourite, of 2003 so-far from soul veteran Oliver Cheetham and Room 5 P>Possible collectors' items are the inclusion of the penultimate S Club single and the first from an alleged pair of Russians lesbians. I can't help but think that t.A.T.u. might just have raised a few eyebrows nearly 20 years ago when Now 1 first saw light of day. All-in-all, a well-rounded compilation, that never fails to hit the spot whatever your current musical tastes. Here's to Now 55, and, looking further ahead, to December of this year when it's the 20th anniversary of the first of the series reaching that coveted Number One spot.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Now in years!, 5 April 2003
Wow! This is a really amazing compilation. The tracklisting just strings perfectly from hit to hit. It also features 6 number ones, which is more than we've had in ages.CD 1 starts out with smash hits from TATU, Justin Timberlake, Nelly & Kelly and Liberty X, then we get some nice dance pop from Room 5 (from the Lynx advert) and Junior Senior, and then a huge collection of pop hits including Girls Aloud, Busted, Sinead Quinn, Atomic Kitten and Blue. Next up is a bit of R&B/Dance from Jay-Z & Beyonce and Jaimeson, then the disc finishes up with some more pop from S Club, One True Voice and more. CD 2 is largely indie and ballads, starting off with Daniel Bedingfield, David Sneddon, Robbie Williams and Oasis. Then some more indie (Turin Brakes, Coldplay...). Then for the R&B, with Cam'ron, Nelly & Justin Timberlake etc. Halfway throught the disc we get some lovely dance (one of the biggest highlights of the album for me)with Panjabi MC, Scooter, DJ Sammy and Divine Inspiration. The album concludes with more indie from the likes of Mock Turtles, Counting Crows and Massive Attack. Overall the CD is excellent, with few bad tracks, but there are still so many more awesome ones it missed:
Eminem, Blue & Elton John, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent, Jurgen Vries and CMC, Love Inc, Pink, Gareth Gates, Will Young etc. etc. However quite a lot of these can be found on Hits 55 - a great accompaniment to Now 54. So, despite all the ones it missed, I still give it 5 stars simply because there are so few bad tracks, and so many good ones. To finish up with, a couple of general observations:
1. This album features both Popstars: The Rivals bands, and the biggest two from Fame Academy.
2. It seems to be a new idea to put an old band's new song on Disc 2 - on here it's Queen, on Now 53 it was Status Quo!! Thank you for reading my review!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
one of the best nows (yet that's not saying much), 24 Jul 2004
The fifty-fourth installment of the pop compilation is not a letdown, unlike some Nows that follow. It has a great mixture of rnb (Justin, Beyonce & Jay-Z, Nelly & Kelly Rowland, Nelly & Justin), pop (Sugababes, S Club - uurgh! - Girls Aloud, Melanie C, Busted - uurgh!), indie (Coldplay, Oasis), and dance (Liberty X, Scooter, DJ Sammy).
My personal favouriters are "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" "Move Your Feet" "Clocks" and "Being Nobody". On disc 2, there are many songs I have never heard of which is the one of the only reasons it's not five stars. It's a pleasing album and I'm sure people from ages 8-14 will enjoy it.
HINT: Don't listen to S Club or Busted - they are displeasing mediocre pop.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A superb album!!!, 16 May 2003
By A Customer
The first of the Now series that I bought has been Now 51. Since then I have looked forward to new releases of the series. Now 54 is a wonderful piece to own, for hose who like fast songs as well as to those who like them slow. Saying it simply, I love it!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The first decent NOW collection in ages!, 1 May 2003
I have to admit that, while not a major fan of this classic series, lately the content has ranged from the dull to the 'good, but why did we have to wait so long for it to appear on a NOW collection?'. NOW 54, however, is possibly the first decent collection in this series for quite a while.Opening the double-disc compilation is t.A.T.u.'s 'All The Things She Said' (the one with THAT video!), which soon gives rise to some true gems such as Nelly & Kelly Rowland's wonderful 'Dilemma', Room 5 & Oliver Cheatham's 'Make Luv' (as featured in THAT advert!), the incredibly infectious poppy dance track 'Move Your Feet' by Junior Senior. And let's not forget the Christmas battlers Girls Aloud ('Sound Of The Underground') and One True Voice ('Sacred Trust', which is really not that great and is a cover of a Bee Gees song -- and people wonder why Girls Aloud beat them in the Christmas sales?). Busted's shining moment appears on here -- the classic 'Year 3000'! Melanie C, showing she has clearly left the image of Sporty Spice behind her, sings her comeback vehicle 'Here It Comes Again', followed by Fame Academy entrant Sinead Quinn with her magnificent song 'I Can't Break Down'. The ever-adamant Darius has his second single 'Rushes' on this album, which is a more-than-passable follow-up to his earlier hit 'Colourblind'. Atomic Kitten sing possibly their best ballad yet: 'Love Doesn't Have To Hurt', while Blue sing their latest single 'U Make Me Wanna', which is quite catchy. Kym Marsh's (formerly of Hear'Say) solo single 'Cry' is here, which is a nice little number. Ainslie Henderson (another Fame Academy entrant) also makes an appearance with his 'Keep Me A Secret'. Disc 2 opens with Daniel Bedingfield's wonderful ballad 'If You're Not The One', followed by Fame Academy winner David Sneddon with 'Stop Living The Lie', which is a very good start for the Scot. Robbie Williams' ballad 'Feel', from his new 'Escapology' album, follows on, later leading into Coldplay's 'Clocks' (my favourite Coldplay single, actually -- compared to this the others sound a bit turgid). Other songs on the second disc include DJ Sammy's 'The Boys Of Summer', which is a dancy cover of the Don Henley song of the same name. Viewers of the film 'Two Weeks' Notice' will no doubt rejoice at the presence of Counting Crows & Vanessa Carlton's 'Big Yellow Taxi' (a cover of the Joni Mitchell song). This is one of the few newer NOW albums I'd recommend to music fans. As an added bonus, those who have the ability to download mobile phone ringtones (be they mono or polyphonic), just inside the cover is a list of numbers you can text to get any of the songs on the album as a ringtone. Can we have more NOW collections of this quality, please?
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Now 54 - We Want More, 18 April 2003
I was very pleased with Now 54, I give it 8 out of 10 because the quality of the songs is excellent, and no songs are cut short. I was disapointed with some of the songs that didn't make it on Now 54 like Electric 6, Eminem, 50 Cent, Blue & Elton John, Christina Aguilera, Gareth Gates and others. But for 42 songs, I think it is a good cd, and it's definately another to add to a collection. I highly recomend it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Now 54 is alrite, 2 April 2003
By A Customer
Now 54 is not really what I expected. I was expecting Eminem, Christina Aguilera, Electric 6, Milk Inc, Flip & Fill, Liam Lynch, Big Brovaz and 50 Cent plus others 2 b on Now 54. I am not pleased that there r all those pop idols and fame academy singers on the cd. In my opinion it's wasted space. However there r good songs on there, and it will definately b another Now 2 add 2 my collection!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
More Pop, Rock and Dance, 1 April 2003
More of the standard Pop, Rock and Dance fayre from the people at the Now compilation headquarters. This album includes the usual Pop offerings (Justin Timberlake, Busted, Liberty X and S Club). It also includes a lot of Pop from the TV reality shows (Fame Academy's David , Ainslee and Sinead with Girls Aloud and One True Voice) showing the ever changing face of the current Pop market. Again a lot of dance tunes here (Junior Senior, Room 5 and DJ Sammy). Also includes Coldplay, Oasis and Richard Ashcroft for us purists. Dissapointed not to see the excellent Avril Lavigne but all in all this album as always contains something for everyone.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
What's wrong with Brit-Pop?, 30 April 2003
By A Customer
As a hobby DJ living in Switzerland I buy all of the Now series in order to keep up with what's been going on in Blighty. Most decent hits also filter through here a few months later, so that also saves money in the long run.The first album of each year is traditionally weak but this one is particularly dire. There are only 4 or 5 tracks worth hearing on this CD and I already processed them (t.a.T.u., Robbie, Coldplay, etc.) As each year rolls by I'm not sure who's to blame for such a poor state of the British Pop Industry. Is it me who really is getting too old? I think not! I can't even be bothered to listen to the whole CD again to count how many cover versions there are? Even the good old Euro-Pop from Scooter sounds like a cover version of one of their old "songs" (sic.)
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