NOW Thats What I Call Music! 7

Product Information

The percussive Bucks Fizz, followed by the slow crescendo that is the A-ha number, all topped off nicely with The Simply Red jewel. All series with the exception of United Kingdom and the United States have been discontinued, New Zealand had two more albums released as a playlist only on Spotify, South Africa had three more albums released as a playlist on Spotify under DJ Kurtis. A standard 4-CD version is also issued in a gatefold "wallet" design, which retails cheaper than the mini-hardback books. A triple-CD only release, Yearbook Extra: The Collectors Edition, is issued a few weeks later; these include lesser known tracks and more songs by big artists included on the main album and they are released only in standard gatefold wallet packaging.

While the Hits team at CBS and WEA put out their fourth instalment in March 1986, the subsequent months were quiet with no Now Dance or new entrants into the market. Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait: Great synth riff, more on which later as it was sampled in a track on a later Now! While other countries had started truncated CD releases a couple of years earlier, their selections also could be a little random. while on 1986’s Now 7 we got treated to the Alternative 7” of Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money). In terms of the sleeve, the words "32 Top Chart Hits" have been removed for obvious reasons, but also UB40 are also absent from the front cover despite their song still being on the album.The military theme is continued with ex-Wall of Voodoo man Stan Ridgway’s Nam-twanging Camouflage which is expertly slotted after Max Headroom and The Art of Noise’s sleep-pleading Paranoimia. There are three super slices of poptasticness here; Bananarama’s glorious cover of Shocking Blue’s Venus, Amazulu’s self-fulfilling Too Good To Be Forgotten and Bucks Fizz wonderful back-from-the-crash epic New Beginning (Mamba Seyra).

Towards the end of the series, 3-CD digipak sets were issued, but in 2010, the long-running title was retired, and all subsequent dance-themed Now collections have been issued under the Special Editions series. The first two volumes were not released on compact disc, and all subsequent releases were either single, double, or triple disc sets.Part of the series was also released on the Mini Disc format, beginning with Now 43 and ending with Now 48. Given that the Queen track was obviously only cleared after the sleeves had gone to press, I wonder why they decided where to put it in the sequence? To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The original Now Dance series began in 1985 and has been released in a variety of titles, formats, and release frequency.

I reckon in another world the Queen track would have opened the album rather than being tagged on at the end of a side. I don't have a super expensive hifi system or claim to have perfect hearing but I find this CD seems to sound sharper (glassier) than the LP I have.The sleeve and inner labels make no reference to the track; it appears right after Side 3, track 8 [Simply Red’s strong slow set mainstayer Holding Back The Years]. These were all released on CD and magnetic cassette, but with the 1993 and 1994 volumes also being released on the vinyl format.