Now vs Now Millennium

I don't recall where that is either, and since I was the one who posted it, I'll re-post here.

Now That's What I Call Music started as a series of LPs in the UK in 1983. The first volume to appear on CD was Now 4, which I've never seen with my own eyes, and I'm kinda skeptical that it's a legit CD release. (I could be wrong.) I myself have single-CD releases of Now That's What I Call Music '86 (1986) (featuring the only CD release I know of for Tears For Fears's "Everybody Wants To Run The World"), Now 8 (1986) and Now 9 (1987). From Vol. 10 onwards, they were double-CD releases.

When Now turned 10 years old in 1993, they released a series of 2-CD collections Now 1983, Now 1984, ..., Now 1993. These 2-CD sets are really phenomenal, with terrific sound quality overall - perfect EQ, and no excessive compression/limiting. Most, but not all, are the 45 versions. Since I wrote everything up last time, I've discovered that a sizable percentage of the tracks are digital clones of existing CDs or of the original Now CDs, which is interesting.

I've also discovered that there are many, many early fades on these discs. Some just speed up the fade by a few seconds, others fade as much as 30 seconds early.

If you can live with early fades, these discs are a godsend. I still highly recommend them, even with the early fades.

In 1999, Now released the The Millennium Series , with 2-CD sets from Now 1980 to Now 1999. These are entirely different beasts from the 1993 sets. I was not impressed with the sound overall, with a slightly brassy, aggressive EQ on most tracks, and a lot of clipping and/or excessive compression because most are mastered too loud. Track selection is similar to the 1993 releases but decidedly different. Both are representative of UK pop for the particular year, but I prefer the 1993 releases.

For the Millennium Series years I had (1980, 1981, 1982, 1988, 1989), I never did A/B comparisons with the 1993 releases, so I can't specifically answer if the versions were the same. I just wasn't impressed with the sound on the Millennium Series discs, so I avoided using them when I could.

Edited by crapfromthepast

NightAire wrote: Regarding the early NOW albums on CD, I thought this website documenting "errors" (differences between LP ad CD) was pretty interesting. https://apopfansdream.wordpress.com/words/now-cd-errors/ "The purpose of this page is to document the errors with Now That’s What I Call Music 1-9 CD releases. While it’s great to see these early albums emerge on CD at last, the quality control has been slipshod with numerous mistakes. It’s clear that the best time to do this would have been in late 1987 or early 1988 – just after Now 10 came out, the first one to have the same number of tracks on LP, cassette and CD. While impossible to know for sure, these releases could have come in a chunky fatbox, there would have been few or no licensing issues & they probably would have exactly matched the originals."

It was my understanding that certain releases on NOW 1-9 could not be cleared for licensing or specific versions on the old NOW 1-9 that were exclusive to that disc as well meaning they either were replaced or replaced with alternative versions as best licensing rights allowed....

Edited by PopArchivist

Thank you for your information and perspective!

Welcome aboard! I noticed you just signed on the forum.

Nlgbbbblth is a tricky to address moniker. How would you
prefer to be referred to?

Andy

Just playing Now Yearbook 1985. Tracks like Marillion's Kayleigh, Brian Ferry's Slave To Love & Paul Young's Every Time You Go Away
which were wrong on the Now 5 CD (album versions whereas the original Now 5 LP used single mixes) are now correct on the Yearbook
release.

All it takes is a little more care & attention to detail.