CD REVIEWs
 By
Phil Savva
NOW 63, various artistes
THE guys and gals at Now That’s What I Call Music continue to keep
all us pop afficiandos happy with their ongoing release of the NOW series
of CDs.
This time around on Now 63 we have the usual combination of rock, pop,
indie, dance and R&B but perhaps with a little more emphasis on the
pop and indie than usual.
CD1 opens with the excellent, soulful Corinne Bailey Rae offering Put
Your Records On and follows up with a band that personally I never get
tired of looking at the Pussycat Dolls’ with Beep and band-of-the-moment
Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps.
There’s a whole batch of pop tunes to choose from with Will Young
(All Time Love), Shayne Ward (That’s My Goal), Simon Webbe (No Worries),
Sugababes (Ugly) and Westlife (Amazing) to name but a few.
For all you dancefloor fanatics Hi-tack’s excellent Say Say Say
is here alongside the re-release of Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me
Round and awful Meck’s Thunder In My Heart Again.
CD2 takes the more ‘rocky-indie’ road with Robbie William’s
Advertising Space alongside Coldplay’s Talk, U2’s All Because
Of you, Kaiser Chiefs’ The Modern Way and Richard Ashcroft’s
Break The Night With Colour.
But there’s still time to indulge in the odd quirky tune or two
with Nizlopi’s phenomenally successful JCB Song and Chico’s
appalling It’s Chico Time.
As always it’s a hit and miss affair. Oh well, I guess we have to
put up with some dross to get to the gems.
Planet 70s, various artistes
PERHAPS this should be subtitled the good, the bad and the downright
ugly.
This double-CD collection takes us back to the era of the 70s and is a
reminder of just how good... and bad some of the music was.
Now while personal preference will always play a large part in anyone’s
choice of music I make no excuses for listing some of mine here.
So in no particular defence of my choices I plump for the likes of Thin
Lizzy‘s Boys Are Back In Town, Freda Payne’s Band Of Gold,
T. Rex’s Get It On, Smokey Robinson’s Tears Of A Clown, Free’s
All Right Now and Stealer’s Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle With
You as the good.
Those that fall into my bad category include Sweet’s Blockbuster,
Sparks’ This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us, The
Knack’s My Sharona, Slade’s Mama Were All Crazee Now and Chicory
Tip’s Son Of My Father.
And when it comes to downright ugly well could you get any uglier than
Terry Jacks’ Seasons In The Sun, Leo Sayers’ You Make Me Feel
Like Dancing, Dennis Waterman’s I Could Be So Good For You, The
Osmonds’ Crazy Horses, Mud’s Tiger Feet, 10CC’s Dreadlock
Holiday or Serge Gainsbourg’s Je T’aime?
The rest I’m pretty ambivalent towards but there’s still some
real memory-jerkers here with the likes of Status Quo, Lindisfarne, Ian
Dury, Toots & The Maytals, The Temptations and Lou Reed to name but
a few.
Massive R&B Spring Collection, various artistes
COLLECTIONS of R&B are always big sellers and you can expect Massive
R&B Spring Collection 2006 to be no exception to that rule.
This double-CD collection features some of the hottest R&B acts around
today and also gives a nod to some of the best from the past.
Among those hot from today’s charts comes Pussycat Dolls with Beep,
Chris Brown with Run It, Three 6 Mafia with Stay Fly, Mario with Let Me
Love You and Craig David with Don’t Love You No More (I’m
Sorry).
Best of the blasts from the past come from R Kelly (Ignition). Kelly Rowland
(Stole), Outkast (Ms Jackson), Ms Dynamite (Dy-na-mi-tee) and Blu Cantrell
(Breathe).
But I have to say my two favourite tracks are both oldies — namely
the excellent Scandalous from Mis-teeq and Ashanti’s Rock Wit U
(Awww Baby).
Other featured artistes include the likes of Justin Timberlake, Lemar,
De La Soul, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey. Definitely one for the collection.
Dreams, Deep Dish
DEEP Dish had an absolutely amazing 2005.
Following hard on the heels of their smash hit Flashdance they released
Say Hello to equal critical acclaim and also the Sacramento EP and album
George Is On.
Now the Iranian duo of Dubfire and Sharam let loose their latest single
offering in the shape of an excellent remix of the old Fleetwood Mac classic
Dreams.
The wonderfully-haunting vocals of Stevie Nicks are present once again
but the rhythm has received an injection of pace and bass and it’s
an excellent example of the old meeting new to good effect.
It will be interesting to see how it is greeted by the record-buying public
but I predict another big hit.
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