fifteen now

howdy pop pickers

and so another Now That's What I Call Music reissue. with this one being of volume, or edition, 15, look you see. but i suspect you worked that one out from the slightly spooned title. if spooned is the correct term, as in spoonerism, and not that laid down thing. 

partially i was ever so slightly surprised to see this one out now, as in August 2023. from what i could remember (or recall) they have been putting these out at a rate of 2 (two) a year, with the release dates being April and November. one quick search of my blog from previous volumes what i have been compelled to purchase and no, at least last year there was also three (3) put out. didn't bother looking any further back, for now (15) is where we are. 

for those interested in matters of provenance, it was off of Fopp in London (innit) that i got this. and if you are unaware of what a Fopp is, well, me too. it's kind of a quasi HMV that isn't HMV, yet clearly carries their stock, uses their price stickers, etc. no idea what the deal is, probably some form of tax purposes arrangement. 

where are we now with Now 15? it covers, vaguely, spring into summer of 1989. quite the (nearly) end of an era, then, in several ways but the most dominant being (of course) the closure of a decade. some people suggest that the 80s was the last truly great decade for vibes (music), but that is patently incorrect. quite a bit of the greatest stuff ever made, be it quality or iconic impact, was to come in the 90s. well, eventually, for the first couple of years of the decade kind of sucked. no, it really all went right to sh!t in the 2000s, to be honest. 

to pay some respect to Dickens, this set really is a best of times, worst of times set. should one listen exclusively to tape (disc) one (1) you'd think the summer of 89 was class. yet listen just to tape (disc) two (2) and you would think it was, mostly, a poor time to be alive. not sure if they plotted the selection of tunes to reflect this, but here it is. but it's not like all of 1 is class and all of 2 is a write off. 

easily, and by some distance, the single greatest song on here is Americanos off of Holly Johnson, and indeed that's pure bias. but the really strange thing is that's not his best song from the year, with that honour very much going to Love Train, which apparently got released at a stage which excluded it being either here or on Now 14. for some reason it's Americanos that gets a lot of radio play and lot and lots of love, rather than Love Train. hey ho, it's not like there's such a thing as a bad Holly song. 

close second (and probably closer than i intimated above) is Song For Whoever off of The Beautiful South. i am delighted to find it remains a damned fine, catchy and very witty tune. 

quite a few heavyweights of the vibes scene find themselves on this set. an interesting one is track one off of tape (disc) 1, with that being I Want It All off of Queen. it's boss, it is, even in this single edit form, where it clocks in just south of four minutes. sometimes the "edit" of an album track for a single robs it of its soul, but Queen most decidedly did not p!ss about on the quality front. also present is Paul McCartney (who wasn't Sir then) with My Brave Face. i had kind of forgotten about this one, but was happy to find it remains a most smart tune. as i recall the video was somewhat interesting, something about a Japanese businessman thinking he had Macca's Beatles bass guitar. 

rounding off tape (disc) 1 and, well, lots of highlights. there's the banging Good Thing off of Fine Young Cannibals, Kirsty MacColl's ace cover of Days, Steve Nicks with Rooms On Fire and The Look off of Roxette. sure, the latter might have borrowed slightly off of U Got The Look off of Prince, but still, it works. the only major disappointment is a ho-hum Simple Minds effort. i had forgotten all about The Second Summer Of Love off of Danny Wilson. whereas it's smart, the "plinky" guitar on this was kind of new-ish then, but got over used and murdered by a succession of however did they even have so much as one hit wonders off of America in the 90s and 00s.

do i have to do tape (disc) 2? ok. well, there are some good things. first track is Back To Life off of Soul II Soul (and Caron Wheeler), which remains boss. at the time the James Bond theme Licence To Kill felt like a let down of A View To A Kill and Living Daylights, but my ears now appreciate it as a classic ballad theme. the tape (disc) ends with Lullaby off of The Cure, which is one of those rare moments for them when their immense experimentation and latent pop sensibilities are combined in one song and it's excellent. note, just about all songs off of The Cure are excellent, it's just normally they are either or the descriptions there. 

not really in the mood for negative waves, man, but my goodness there's some right sh!t on disc (tape) two. Jive Bunny has (have) not aged well, for a start. actually, i found myself laughing a bit at Bobby Brown with Every Little Step. from what i recall he kind of projected a "hard man from the hood" image, yet this sounds like a teeny bop New Kids On The Block thing. should anyone need evidence that D-Mob could be just as irritating and annoying when they didn't simply say "acieeeeed" in a really bad high pitch voice, such (or said) evidence is to be found here. as for the rest of the tracks, one or two good ones, but also a lot of average tunes. like, for instance, the Pet Shop Boys handing in a "will this do" song with It's Alright and Bananarama delivering a remix of a previous hit. 

i have no idea which song is missing from the original release, but one (1) clearly is. oh, well. certainly missing is probably the biggest film related tune of that summer, which would be Batdance off of Prince. from what i recall, though, he himself had issues trying to licence it for one set. my abiding memory of that summer is me and some of my mates playing tapes (actual) of Guns N Roses, Metallica and probably New Order. perhaps the stuff wasn't actually released then, or just not licenced here. 

one has to assume that Now 16 will be due for a release in November, then, going on the pattern. will i be getting it, if so? probably, should i still be a thing and around. i imagine it will cover the last few months of 1989, so yes. after that, well, it shall be 1990, and i don't recall anything immediately from the charts then. who knows, maybe some forgotten class tunes. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!