Metapost: Now 44 conclusions

It feels like a terribly long time ago that I started going over this album (it's actually about five weeks) but part of the reason I chose it in the first place was because it's the biggest seller of all the Now! albums and at last count remained among the all-time Top 50, despite having been on sale only briefly; it is, apparently, their policy to delete the albums after three years or so. Forty-two tracks later, do I understand why this happened?

Well, I don't think it was the exceptional quality of the music. Listening back now (admittedly from a 2009 perspective) confirmed my suspicion that some of the album is really good, some poor and some simply forgettable - but that's surely the case for any volume in the series. It could hardly be otherwise really. Neither could it really be said that this one offers an exceptionally broad range of musical styles: there's no hard rock, no hip-hop (unless you count 'S Club Party') and even the typical segment of "alternative" is reduced to three tracks, one of which is by Tom Jones. My best guess, beyond pure luck, is that it happened to hit a rich vein of not-very-album-focussed pop (it was rumoured at the time that some record labels intentionally held back big album releases for 2000, presumably because they thought people would be too busy paying to get into pubs on New Year's Eve to afford any records at the end of the year). Assemble enough of those and it's a strong commercial proposition.

If you can contain your excitement, I've already decided where I'm going next with this blog.

Liquid Child 'Diving Faces'

Chart Peak: 25

YouTube

Needless to say, Now That's What I Call A Challenge does not in any way endorse copyright infringement, but it is rather helpful that somebody ripped this track straight off Now 44 so I could be sure I was listening to the right version.
Anyway, 'Diving Faces' represents journey's end for this particular album. It's the one track here that I was sure I'd never heard, nor even heard of, being a comparatively minor hit from an act not especially well-known; this may explain why it was pushed to the very end of the disc (and possibly also why we only get this rather brief edit, when longer versions evidently exist).

For a moment, I thought about bringing on a guest blogger for this track, as it's so remote from any music I know anything about. I don't mean that as any kind of insult to the record itself, because I'm sure a lot of people who love this couldn't grasp what I like about The Wedding Present either - it's just a different set of priorities. Trance is such foreign territory to me that I'm not completely sure I'd even know this was trance if I hadn't been told. I believe the people who tell me that this sort of thing is energising, and one of the other YouTube clips even shows some people being energised by a version of this. But to me, sitting in front of a computer on a February evening? Nope. And those whispered vocals (which I suspect are a later addition, as they certainly don't appear on all versions of the song) are more creepy than appealing to me. I might as well be trying to review a book in a language I can't understand, frankly.

I presume, although I haven't bothered to research it, that "diving faces" is a reference to people in clubs who seem to be gasping for air. I'll let you guess for yourself what would cause them to do that.

Available on: Classic Trance Nation

Tina Cousins 'Angel'

Chart Peak: 46

YouTube

Yes, you read that right. This only got to 46, admittedly only a few weeks before the album was released. But this being her second consecutive single to fall short of the Top 40, it's hard to imagine anyone really fancying its chances of being a big hit. Perhaps they got this as a job lot with the Steps track: they both worked with Pete Waterman, and Cousins was the first to record 'Deeper Shade Of Blue', later a Steps hit. Presumably she was considered due to her success as a guest vocalist for Sash!

I can't entirely remember whether I heard this at the time, but hearing it now I wouldn't expect to be able to remember it. The rather odd video might have stuck in my mind though. Musically, it does sound a bit like, well, a rejected Steps track, more than anything I'd recognise as dance music. There are some vague intimations of a beat, but it doesn't really gel. Although Cousins never really caught on as a solo artist in her home country, she managed more success in Australia, which explains how she ended up on a telethon with Tim Brooke-Taylor over there. Now we know what the internet was invented.

Also appearing on: Now 42, 43
Available on: Smash Hits 2000

Alena 'Turn It Aound'

Chart Peak: 14

YouTube

Another one I can recall only by the melody of the title line, so I'm not completely sure if I've found the right version. I have a vague recollection that this was widely expected to become a rather bigger hit than it ultimately became.
According to the Internet, the Alena to whom this is credited was Jamaican singer Alena Lova, but the man behind the record was Dutch producer Carlo Resoort, better known as founder of the act 4 Strings. Indeed he re-recorded this song as part of the latter act five years later and was rewarded with a UK Top 50 hit. That rendition has a far weaker vocal, though, which makes this one sound considerably better in comparison. Maybe I'm just getting demob-happy as the end of the album approaches, but I did actually like this one more than a lot of the other dance tracks I've made my way through in recent days.



Available on: Kiss in Ibiza '99

Alice Deejay 'Back In My Life'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

A single that entered the chart the same week as Now 44 itself, so its inclusion here was clearly a prediction of success, and an accurate one at that.
Impressively, my wife actually recognised the voice of Judy Pronk when I played this track. In a way, she almost outdid me there because I might have struggled had I not known to start with. Rather like ATB a few tracks ago, this was the follow-up to a massive hit that had appeared on Now 43. And again, I remembered them having the hit, but nothing about the track itself. In all honesty, I probably tried not to hear it too much at the time but the fact remains that this sounds suspiciously like The Hit ('Better Off Alone' in this case) without the interesting bits. I can be generous enough to imagine that if you like this sort of music you might enjoy this one, but I've got to admit it doesn't do anything for me. The formula lasted them a few more hits though, and apparently Pronk is now a make-up artist.


Also appearing on: Now 43, 46
Available on: Who Needs Guitars Anyway?

Wamdue Project 'King Of My Castle'

Chart Peak: 1

YouTube

Can you be free in a trestle? It's certainly a question you get plenty of opportunities to ponder during this track. At the risk of repeating what I've said before, there is a lot of repetition going on here. According to Everyhit.com 'King Of My Castle' is the longest title of a Number One single with no repeated characters - which is exactly the sort of trivia I love, but it's the first thing I remembered about this track, alongside a Top Of The Pops performance where the group barely moved a muscle. I don't know that I blame them: for a dance record, there's not a lot to get you moving.

Number One singles were coming thick and fast around the turn of the century, but I think this must be among the least remembered of them, certainly among ones not by established acts. It doesn't put a foot wrong, but all of it is so by-the-book that it's hard to say much for it, either.


Available on: Clubbin'

Groove Armada ft Gram'ma Funk 'I See You Baby'

Chart Peak: 17

YouTube

Note: according to the list I'm writing from, the version on the album is the Fatboy Slim remix edit, although that didn't become an A-side until 2004. It's just as well, because Groove Armada apparently won't let me view the original video from the UK. Anyway, I'm open to correction on this point from anyone who owns Now 44.

Groove Armada are an act who've grown on me somewhat in recent years, for reasons I can't wholly explain. Perhaps it's because ten years ago everyone seemed so determined that they were going to be massive, and so much of their material got used for adverts, trailers and so on that it got rather tiresome. One reason I'm not typically a fan of dance music is the heavy use of repetition, and there's certainly plenty of that here, which was a problem at the time but when I hear the track now, I don't mind so much. In fact, I even heard their later hit 'Superstylin' on the radio yesterday and didn't mind it. That's progress.

Also appearing on: Now 50, 67, 68
Available on: The Best Of

DJ Jean 'The Launch'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

Another one kept off the top by Lou Bega, which certainly puts him higher in my estimation. I try not to be driven by my prejudices when I write these things, but this is the sort of thing that really doesn't do it for me. There's something in the tone of that parping synth line that grates on me, but I think the worst thing about this is that we get a lot of "Get ready for the launch" and a big countdown, followed by... exactly the same tune that was playing before anyway.

If I concentrate hard enough, I can imagine how this might fit into a DJ set as a way to build up anticipation and get the crowd going on the way to a more interesting track. But it's beyond me why anyone would feel it worth their money to buy this as a single and listen to it at home.


Available on: Massive Dance Hits 2000

AtB 'Don't Stop'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

It's pretty much all dance from this point onwards, folks. Andre Tanneberger had one of the biggest dance tracks of the year with '9pm (Till I Come)', which managed to hit the Top 75 on two different imports and a white label before it eventually topped the chart. That was on Now 43, though, so what we get here is the typical underwhelming follow-up: by his own admission 'Don't Stop' is just a weedy rehash of the original idea, but less well done. Despite its obvious success at the time (Top 3, and only one import version in the Top 75) I didn't remember much about it at all, and now I can tell why - it's just not memorable enough.


Also appearing on: Now 43, 45
Available on: Seven Years: 1998-2005

Shaft '(Mucho Mambo) Sway'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

You can see why I was starting to get tired of the Latin music, can't you? For one week the Top 3 was this, 'Mambo No 5' and 'Mi Chico Latino'. This Shaft are not the same ones who did that novelty version of 'Roobarb & Custard' in 1991, but the difference isn't vast: it's still a sample-based track fitting in with a current trend. This Shaft were also Da Muttz, who did a 'Wassup' cash in...

The sample in this instance was from Rosemary Clooney's version of 'Sway', initially a UK hit for Dean Martin, although for legal reasons the released single uses a soundalike vocal. Either way, it's treated in the typical way of the time, looped in the usual way, treated with the usual effects and so on and so forth. It turns out better than many of these things do, which I'd attribute to the source material: it's good and was of course always intended for dancing, but it's not so unimpeachable that you can really object to it being played about with. Still not exactly my scene though.

Available on: The Ultimate Collection - Nineties

Enrique Iglesias 'Bailamos'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

It says on his YouTube profile that he's been a one-man ambassador of global culture since 1997. Back in 1999, though, it didn't seem that way - he was just another singer (albeit one with a famous parent) having a hit in the fashionable Latin style. In fact, I barely gave this record a second thought at the time.

I've given it a second one now. I can appreciate it's well put together, but it doesn't interest me much more than it did then. Perhaps it gains from the fact that there aren't dozens of similar tracks in the charts at the moment, but I still don't want to dance with him. Neither indeed do I want to see the film Wild Wild West which apparently includes this track. Maybe it's because this was from a movie that when the follow-up missed the Top 40 (in the very same week as Lou Bega's) I didn't think we'd be hearing from him again. Spare a thought for Julio Iglesais Jr...


Also appearing on: Now 51, 52, 53, 57 (with Kelis), 67, 68
Available on: Greatest Hits

The Vengaboys 'We're Going To Ibiza!'

Chart Peak: 1 (1 week)

YouTube

It's slightly difficult to know how to approach this one. It'd be very easy, but not very interesting, to dismiss it as rubbish. After all it is the Vengaboys. However,I can't deny that it's a record I look upon somewhat more favourably now than at the time, possibly because I'm not in the thick of it, so to speak. The other interesting way to look at it is to recall that it's based on Typically Tropical's 'Barbados', a song that sounds a bit disreputable nowadays. By turning it into a song about partying, they neatly avoid any potential offence, although they did undo this somewhat with their later hit 'Uncle John From Jamaica'.

One thing that I do recall bothering a lot of people at the time was the pronunciation of "Ibiza": if it's any consolation, it would appear that we in the English-speaking world have been mispronouncing the group's name all along. So, I don't really have the heart to be too critical of this record, but those computer-generated Vengaboys in the video - no, just no.


Also appearing on: Now 41, 42, 43, 45, 46
Available on: Pop Party [Includes Bonus Karaoke CD]

Ann Lee '2 Times'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

I doubt anyone who knows me will be at all surprised to learn that I hated this record at the time simply for not being called 'Twice'. Additionally, dance records that feature long stretches of somebody singing "Doo-doo-doo-doo" have never been a favourite of mine.

Ten years on this wasn't as annoying as I thought it would be. That might partly be because I've only listened to it the once, but I'd also forgotten that there were any lyrics other than the title. Lee's voice is somewhat better than I'd recalled too, and vaguely makes me wish she'd used it on something more interesting: her one other UK hit, 'Voices' is little more than a re-run of this one.

Available on: Dreams

Lolly 'Mickey'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

Have I really just spent three and a half minutes of Valentine's Day listening to this? Well, at least I used the headphones so my wife didn't have to hear it - I wonder if that counts as a present.
Now, at the time my brother was quite keen of the Lolly singles, which were part of the massive explosion of light-hearted pop at the end of the decade. Perhaps had it been one of the others that had cropped up, I might have been more sympathetic, but this was a song that already bordered on the annoying, and is done no favours by this performance.

Incidentally, I realise she wasn't actually the small child she dressed up as, but it was still a bit of a surprise to learn that she's older than me.

Also appearing on: Now 43
Available on: My First Album

S Club 7 'S Club Party'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

It seems only fair to warn people that this song contains the lyric "Hoochie Mama, show your nana!"

In October 1999, my brother was (jokingly) castigating me for not buying this group's debut album, plumping instead for an album by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci that was released in the same week. Although this was in fact the second S Club 7 single, following up their TV theme tune 'Bring It All Back', it sounds sort of like a debut. Not only does it (obviously) have their name in the title, it also introduces each member of the band by name (helpfully captioned in the accompanying video); beyond this exposition, it's a catchier song than its predecessor too.

That said, this is one track that's disappointed me here, because it has dated a lot worse than I thought. The hip-hop affectations are a lot more prominent than I remembered, and inevitably unconvincing. It sounds far more dated than I expected too (although of course those big "HEY" chants in the background are still to be heard in this week's chart thanks to TI). Unsurprisingly, the harder it tries to sound cool, the less it works. Still, if you agree that "Their aint no party like an S Club Party" {sic} then you can always book them. Well, three-sevenths of them. If they're all available that night.

And of course the great question that remains unanswered: how would I go about waving my hands in the air if I did care?

Also appearing on: Now 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 54 (as S Club), 55 (as S Club)
Available on: S Club

Honeyz 'Never Let You Down'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

One reason why the Now albums appealed to me as a subject was the secret history they seem to offer of their times. Because they're not compiled with any nod towards posterity, they present a pretty wide view of what was making an impression on the singles chart at any given time, so you can typically expect to find songs that are still heard to this day, songs that are regarded as follies of their time, and a lot of stuff that's simply vanished off the radar. I'd have put the Honeyz into the latter category; a group who managed five consecutive Top 10 singles (of which this is the fourth) but a decade on are only heard of as a question on Popmaster, which nobody ever gets right.

As it turns out, somebody remembers them well enough to have generated a remarkably detailed Wikipedia entry, from which I learn that this single was the debut of their second lineup, Mariama Goodman having joined from Solid Harmonie. It's helpful to have some factual information here, because this is another song that I struggle to form a strong opinion on. The chorus, I suppose, is solid enough that I was able to call it to mind before I looked it up on YouTube, but otherwise there's little to catch the ear - it's a typical British attempt to replicate the least interesting end of RnB. It's well put together, but goes nowhere. It may be no accident that the run of Top 10 singles I mentioned above was followed by two singles missing the Top 20 and the end of their record contract, or that so few people seem to have noticed when they reformed in 2005. I don't want to sound too mean here, but there's not a lot going on.

Also appearing on: Now 41, 42, 43, 45
Available on: Wonder No.8

Gabrielle 'Sunshine'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

Already into her second comeback, Gabrielle rather surprised me with the success of this single. She's an act I've often felt rather ambivalent about - a performer of obvious talent whose records I often didn't really appreciate. This was her first Top 10 single since a painfully superfluous cover version of 'Walk On By', which rather seemed to prove the point.
'Sunshine' is definitely better than that, but it remains surprisingly low-key for a comeback single (even if you find a more audible copy than the official YouTube version). Part of the reason for these sales must lie in the skilful choice of remixes for the B-side (the Wookie mix seems to have gone down especially well), but it also seems that the song hit a nerve. It was apparently written as a tribute to her son and the relief he brought to her often troubled life: not least the fact that his father was sent to prison soon after he was born. Even though I don't love this record, I'm pleased it did well.

Also appearing on: Now 25, 26, 27, 33, 35 (with East 17), 36, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 58
Available on: Rise

Jordan Knight 'Give It To You'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Jordan Knight's only UK solo hit (and unless I'm mistaken, the only UK hit by any New Kid On The Block) is a bit of a lost one. It certainly doesn't seem easy to get hold of now, charity shops aside.
When I realised this one was coming up, I thought it was a prime candidate for sounding dated, because it seemed so up-to-the-minute a decade ago. It's actually weathered surprisingly well considering - yes, it sounds of its time, but it's not yet reached the stage of being laughable, at least not in musical terms. You can chalk that one up to the production skills of no less than Jam & Lewis. What I'd forgotten until re-listening (although it didn't go unnoticed at the time) was how dirty this song is lyrically. I know it's called 'Give It To You' and all, but he really does push things about as far as he could within the boundaries of teen-friendly pop; the song was, I now learn, co-written by later solo star Robin Thicke. I also dimly recalled the please-don't-sue-us-copyright-owners-of-Grease video, although just between you and me, I thought the girl looked better with the glasses.

Successful as this one single was though, it couldn't push the album higher than 135, and as a result no further UK releases were forthcoming. Further singles in his homeland failed to match this sort of sales, which is probably why there's a new NKOTB single out this week. I hadn't made the connection until I read the YouTube comments, but now I come to think of it, every day that Justin Timberlake sits at home counting his money, and doesn't have to go on tour with Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and the other ones, he should be thinking "There, but for the grace of God..." He probably doesn't though.

Available on:Kiss Smooth Grooves 2000 R&B Club Hits

Backstreet Boys 'Larger Than Life'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Well, you can't accuse them of underselling it: especially not in the video, where it's almost a minute in before the song even starts. But after the last few tracks, it's certainly a relief to run into something upbeat, even if overblown. Lyrically, the boys are showing commercial nous in praising the fans who, after all, paid their wages.

At the time, Backstreet seemed to rank among the most annoying of boybands, and their ballads are still pretty sick-making. And of course this is a pretty blatant re-hash of 'Everybody (Backstreet's Back)'. But this probably scrapes by as a job well done, if you're prepared to meet it half-way.

Also appearing on: Now 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51
Available on: Greatest Hits: Chapter 1

Martine McCutcheon 'I've Got You'

Chart Peak: 6

YouTube


I recall that at some point, around the time when it became clear that Martine McCutcheon was going to leave her role in Eastenders in order to pursue a singing career, I heard her on a TV show demonstrating that, unlike many a soap star, she actually could sing. Just as well, it turned out, since her character was ultimately killed off, apparently against the wishes of the actress.

What she couldn't really do, though, was write songs, so she ended up at the mercy of the material handed to her. Some of her album tracks were collaborations with the singer-songwriter duo Ben & Jason, which might have been interesting to hear, but somebody seems to have slipped up badly in the choice of single material, hence the relative brevity of her chart career. 'I've Got You' is a case in point, coming over like an even less interesting version of the Lighthouse Family. To her credit, McCutcheon makes a valiant effort, and resists the temptation to oversing in an attempt to compensate for the material, but the ultimate effect is still of rather a non-event.

I suppose this is the sort of record that really brings home why I put the word "challenge" in the name of this blog. It's not bad, or anything, it's just a struggle to find anything interesting to say.

Also appearing on: Now 43, 45, 47, 48
Available on: You, Me & Us