“Now That’s What
I Call Music” the voiceover man
proclaims triumphantly as the distinctly British compilation album returns for
its Spring release. Can you believe we’re on 87 now! (Or should that be Nows?)
And what an album; Pharrel Williams Happy, a much-loved yet overplayed song that is making me more sad
than happy, kick off CD1. And the A-side truly does have something for everyone;
One Direction’s Story Of My Life and
5 Seconds To Summer’s She Looks SoPerfect aims to please the pre-pubescent teens, while Gary Barlow’s Let Me Gotickles the ears of the
menopausal mums of the country. See, something for everyone!
With both CDs spanning several months, you do come to
realise how quickly the music industry moves on, with Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball featuring on CD1 (Didn’t
that nude-mallet-kissing hype seem like ages ago?!) or X-Factor winner Sam
Bailey’s Skyscraper. Pre-Christmas
hits flitter to the now with Route 94 Feat. Jess Glynne’s My Loveand Enrique’s Im AFreak.
Then there’s the usual dose of divas; Perry’s Dark Horseand Gaga’sDo What You Want, as well as those mini
(distinctly more british) divas; Pixie Lott’s Nasty and Katy B Crying ForNo Reason. There’s always at least one artist who features twice over
the duo album, and this time round is (rather surprisingly) Little Mix, with Move andWord Up!. Released to raise money for Sports Relief, Word Up! Isn’t the only charity single
to feature on 87, with Ellie Goulding’s HowLong Will I Love You tunefully teasing the coins from your pocket for Children
In Need.
In terms of Now
Exclusives, even if you purchased John Newman’s album Tribute you wouldn’t have
previously owned Out Of My Head (Club Edit), which is basically the original just sped up. But it does add
something to Newman’s brilliantly soulful vocals.
CD2 has always been the edgier sibling of the album,
generally filled with more club hits and less soft-centred pop. #Selfie by The Chainsmokers leads Timber, Tsunami and Wizardon a CD that at times sounds like an extended remix of Animals. Yet hidden at the end of the second CD after the
‘club-bangers’ are some truly brilliant songs from the likes of Paloma Faith, (Can’t Rely On You), Foxes (Let It Go For Tonight) and London
Grammar (Hey Now). American Authors
close the 87th Now Album with Best Day Of My Life, an upbeat and uplifting ditty that recently was inducted
into the pop world by featuring on an episode of Glee.
So is this a good addition to the Now archives? Yes. Are
there any notable absentees? Yes again, most alarmingly the wonderful UK chart
topping, “fastest selling single of 2014” hit that is Clean Bandit’s Rather Be. Fingers crossed that’s just
being saved for the big summer release of Now 88!
The Brit Awards in association with Mastercard; the biggest
event in the UK music calendar. And now we’ve said “In association with
Mastercard” we don’t have to say it again, right? #PricelessMoments.
This year’s Brits featured a new award, British Video. Nominees were shortlisted by a mixture of sales,
Youtube views and collective Tweets, with the winner being decided during the
ceremony as viewers at home voted for their winner using the Hashtag Brits followed by the artists name, but
not including retweets and misspellings. All in all, it was a little confusing.
But if ironed out this could become a staple award in future years, and helps
secure the yoof viewership. Although ITV did repeatedly show John Newman’s
video for Cheatingwhen discussing Love Me Again. Which either shows a lack
of research in the ITV offices, or that John Newman’s hits all sound the same…
In the end 1Direction won for Best SongEver, cause apparently their big on social media. (Who Knew?!)
1Direction also picked up the British Global Success award which at the end of the day is just an
award for selling songs abroad quite well. But 1D have done this well, so well
in fact that Harry Styles couldn’t contain his excitement and had to dash to
the toilets, almost missing out on collecting the award.
The Brit Award producers have always been keen on their
collabs and this year was no different. And although Bastille and Rudimental
(Or Bastimental as they were
introduced as) were good, they were nothing compared to the brilliance of Lorde
and Disclosure who created a house version of Royals before being joined by Aluna (of AlunaGeorge) for White Noise.
Lorde went on to winInternational Solo Female beating
the likes of Gaga and (A noticeably peeved) Katy Perry. While on the subject of
KP, what was that British accent bit about? A weird mix of Dick Van Dyke meets Russell
Brand (oh, Sore Subject). All was forgiven however when she performed a day-glo
art-rave version ofDark Horse; which
was fun, if not a bit Lady G.
The other non-British Brits included International Solo Male, whichwent to Bruno Mars who ignored the Solo segment and invited his whole
band/family up to accept the award. While International
Band went to the French robotic duo Daft
Punk, who had an alright 2013 I suppose.
Most underplayed award has to go to Sam Smith, winner of Brit’s Critics
Choice Award. Although this was announced a few weeks before the show, as
tradition dictates, the winner is still normally summoned to the stage to say a
few words (Or swear words in the case of FlorenceAnd The Machine). Sadly this year all Sam was honoured with was a fleeting
flirt from Corden and a small round of applause, all without leaving his seat.
The caliber of category presenters ranged from Lily Allen
(with yellow-dipped hair) to Cesc Fabregas, who awkwardly apologised for
Barcelona beating Manchester City…Because the 02 is famous for its Man City
supporters. Pharrell Williams accidently revealed to the world why he wears that Vivienne Westwood Mountain Hat as
he presented an award with Kylie Minogue, showing how he’s only
marginally
taller than her (And she’s very short). Talking of little people, Prince
even popped up to present the first award of the evening with his band 3rd
Eye Girl. This was made only marginally awkward by James Corden stopping proceedings
to have a ‘selfie’ with Prince. Nice idea, bad timing.
Noel Gallagher brought swagger to the stage as he presented the
British Male award to David Bowie. Noel
then smashed the (admittedly not very high) hopes that David was here in person
to collect the award by proclaiming “David Bowie's too cool for that – he
doesn't do this s**t.” He had a point; as if David Bowie was going to be sat in
between Danni Minogue and Mark Wright at a table at the Brits! But he did send
his “representative on Earth” Kate Moss. As Ziggy Stardust loomed over head on
the projector, Kate read allowed a pre-written speech:
"David has asked
me to say this: In Japanese myth, the rabbits on my old costume that Kate's
wearing live on the moon. Kate comes from Venus, and I from Mars. I'm
completely delighted to have a Brit for being the best male. I think it's a
great way to end the day. Thank you very much – and Scotland, stay with
us."
It became the ultimate talking point of the evening; the oldest
winner in Brits history, a foray into the Scottish independence row. Ultimately,
it proved that Bowie-mania wasn’t dead. Then, when Arctic Monkeys collected British Album, front man Alex Turner Stated that
“Rock’n’roll isn’t dead” before dropping the mic deliberately. Sooo rock and roll. Move over and let the 67 Year old rocker show you kids how it's done...
