Back catalogue: Pop

Review: The NOW series was a rite of passage for many young music lovers. The expertly curated releases came several times a year and gave you an update as to what was hot and what was not - a mad idea in this day and age when everyone can access, if not own, everything ever released the moment it drops. The brand has pivoted well in the digital age and is still putting out collections of sounds with a genre or era focus that are handy and enjoyable reminders. This bumper collection on triple green vinyl is all about 1974 with tunes like 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' and 'Whatever Gets You Thru The Night' still well worth a singalong.

Review: The legendary NOW series is still going strong despite the fact that the music industry and how we access and listen to music has changed immeasurably since they first started way back in the 17th century (maybe.) Now they focus on serving up complete compendiums and comprehensive overviews of entire genres or decades. This NOW: Yearbook 1990 comes across three slabs of orange vinyl with names like Dee-Lite, Dusty Springfield, Duran Duran, Bass-O-Matic and many more all present and correct. If nothing else it is a great trip down memory lane and fine resource for jobbing DJs.

Review: You could probably write a dissertation, if not full thesis, on the symbolism of this album. The biggest name in British chart pop compilations, NOW, turns its hand to spotlighting less obvious tracks from the decade that gave birth to the entire franchise. What this reflects, in terms of what constitutes 'popular' music today, and the questionable relevance of the UK Top 40, is a fascinating train of thought.
Musically speaking, the curators have done a decent job in selecting a broad range of artists, bands and sounds from the fertile grounds of the 1980s. Plenty here are household names - The Stranglers, Devo, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Smiths, Eurythmics, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. Nevertheless, you won't find 'Sweet Dreams' on the track list, and instead rarer archive material is allowed to shine: 'Vicious Games' rather than 'Oh Yeah' by Yello, The Cure's stunning 'A Forest' - we could go on.

Review: For many, many years the Now series was a great way to keep up today with new music - they came a couple of times a year and served up the latest hits of the time. Now they have become erasure troves of retro gold. This bumper triple vinyl collection is a Yearbook for 1983, a lively year with a broad array of sounds making the charts. That's showcased well here with big tunes form the likes of Eurythmics Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart whose 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)' remains a club classic to this day. Add in jams from Tina Turner, The Human League, Joan Armatrading and many more and you have a one stop shop for 80s pop gold.

Review: For those of you of a certain age, the Now compilations are an immediate shot of nostalgia direct into your bones. They started back in the 80s and kept going well into the new millennium - great sources of fun for current dance and pop hits with occasional dalliances into more specific collections. This one is a 1984 Yearbook that rounds up the very many hits of that year including Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters,' Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder's 'Together In Electric Dreams' and the superb Eurythmics, Annie Lennox & Dave Stewart gem 'Here Comes The Rain Again.' A great reminder of the good old days of pop.