NOW 55 [US] and NOW New Wave 80s [US]

It's been a long Summer here at the Hideaway.  Not too hot (only 40 days over 100 degrees) and more rain than we usually get (by a fraction of an inch) but there have been two constants: good music and good people.  Neither of which can be found on Now 55.  That's right, the US division of Now That's What I Call Worldwide are closing out Summer 2015 with the fifty-fifth numerical installment in their flagship series to be released on August 7th.

Featuring sixteen hits from recent past Top 40 and club play plus five NOW What's Next tracks from these young guns, with YouTube Links embedded:

• Conrad Sewell - "Hold Me Up"
• Clairity - "Scarecrow"
• Jidenna feat. Roman GianArthur - "Classic Man"
• All Time Low - "Something's Gotta Give"
• Smallpools - "Dreaming"

There are only two tracks on the whole shebang I can recommend without hesitation or reservation and that would be tracks 12 and 13, with videos below:

Also releasing August 7th "is the NOW brand's first foray into the post-punk alt-rock New Wave pop music universe of the 1980s featuring the songs, artists and bands that defined the look, sound and style of that era."  The single 18 track CD is awkwardly titled in the true NOW fashion as Now That's What I Call New Wave 80s and it appears that the soft rock kid™ may have been cover art design consultant advisor. There are no surprises or rarities on this disc fer shure as it is intended for those who have never purchased a new wave compilation before.  For those people, this is a solid not really the same ol' same ol' selection.  My favorites include the following songs represented by their respective videos:

Hey's that's all eighteen songs!

And for those of us who'd rather buy lossy files than shiny discs, the good folks at Now have a deal for you: Now That's What I Call New Wave 80s - Deluxe Edition, a download only album with more than twice the music but only half the data of the single disc.  It features the music from the disc above plus 22 more pretty dang good tracks for a total of 40 New Wave 80s songs playing out over two and a half hours. The only weak tracks in the bunch for me are tracks 33 and 34 from The Alarm and The Fixx, respectively.  I've never been a fan of The Alarm and the track chosen is one of their less generic sounding ones while I am a huge Fixx fan and find track 34 one of their weakest songs.  Listen for yourself after the pretty picture.