Summer is here, and the kids are out roaming the streets looking for kicks. What better than the 52nd volume of the mighty Now series to keep them quiet? Packed chocka with top pop from the last few months but without a Will, Gareth, Elvis or any mention of football in sight. Yaaay!
All the usual suspects are here, with Kylie and Oasis looking like veterans amongst the new strains of pop virus such as S Club Juniors and Omero Mumba, plus novelty horrors such as Nigel & Marvin, Puddle Of Mudd and the grisly Scooter (at what point was that a good idea?). There's a few fine pop moments in the form of Sugababes' alien-pop 'Freak Like Me', Liberty X's saucy 'Just A Little' and Moony's really quite marvellous arm waver 'Dove', alongside recent chart-harassing corkers from Mary J Blige, Doves, Shakedown, Nelly, Ms Dynamite, Idlewild and Ashanti.
Alongside the good, must lie the bad - hence careerist hairy-neck Ronan, "heartthrob" Enrique Iglesias and the continually perplexing Sophie Ellis Bextor. There's also a barrage of in-at-number-five trance nonentities such as Flip & Fill, Dee Dee and Paffendorf that flit by trancily in their point-free two-and-half-minute edits.
Obviously not the album you're looking for if you've got the Polyphonic Spree on your mind, but for something to bung in your trolley alongside family packs of Sunny Delight and snack-sized Kit-Kats next time you're down the shops, 'Now 52' will keep you going until, well, 'Now 53'.
