NOW Yearbook '93 was released on June 28, 2024. (Two weeks earlier, the vinyl-only NOW Yearbook '80-'84 Volume II was released. We did not purchase it.) The hot pink packaged NOW Yearbook '93 featured 78 tracks across four compact discs, with 44 of those tracks also included on the hot pink-colored premium-priced triple LP.
We generally view 1993 as among our least favorite years for music, so we were not at all moved when this particular NOW Yearbook was announced in late May 2024, and therefore did not pre-order it as we had done with (most of) the other sets in the NOW Yearbook series. By the end of the summer, someone had decided to part with their copy on eBay, so we welcomed their "opened-to-rip" MINT– copy into our physical library at half price, knowing there were at least a dozen tracks we'd enjoy. That pink, though.
A thumpy remix of a 1985 Freddie Mercury single, "Living On My Own", secures the pole position on CD 1. It peaked at number 50 in 1985 but bumped and thumped straight up to Number One in 1993. It is a harbinger of both clunky covers and unnecessary remixes that appear throughout NOW Yearbook '93. Coming after the manic dance party of the Technique album from New Order, the single "Regret" was almost down-tempo in comparison, and we like it. We didn't know it at the time, but "Regret" would become New Order's highest-charting hit in the States as the band soon collapsed under its own successes and problems. We love Duran Duran's "Come Undone", although it hastened the band's regrettable slide into the adult contemporary format. The song's hypnotic groove could be mistaken for a track off Depeche Mode's 1990 album Violator. The shimmering guitar riff provides atmosphere and releases tension. We are incapable of describing the strangely appealing sound of Ace of Base's addictive music, of which "All That She Wants" is a fine example, but here's another attempt: polished sunny pop reggae. The single still evokes a sunny beach vibe regardless of what the weather is outside these walls. River of Dreams was Billy Joel's 12th and final album of rock originals. "The River Of Dreams" was the first single released from the album, and it caught this listener pleasantly off guard with its gospel doo-wop sound. The gauzy, dream-like ambiance enhances the track's gentle, rolling flow. We've always been fans of the music of The Police, but it took us years and years to come around to Sting's less-rocking music. Case in point, the nostalgic serenity of "Fields Of Gold". Haunting melody, gentle rhythm, and poetic lyrics appeal more to us as we run up our odometer.
Clunky covers: "The Love I Lost" and "I'm Every Woman" are together at track numbers eleven and twelve.
CD 1 score: 26.32
We had dismissed Radiohead's "Creep" after a few listens early in 1993 as too down, but it came back into our lives via Rock Band. The downbeat rhythm and subtle profanity proved to be a hit with our teens and their friends, nearly a decade and a half after the song's original critically acclaimed release.
Clunky covers: "Broken English" and "(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You"
CD 2 score: 4.72
It's a little difficult to listen to "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" knowing that Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman are no longer roaming Planet Earth, creating their uniquely bombastic opuses. This song, in its album version, lasts twelve minutes, while the radio edit single here clocks in just over five minutes. We've been rocking out to Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way" for more than three decades, but who's counting? It still rocks as hard as it ever did, and I find myself switching to air drums from air guitar more and more often. It was a few years before I learned the song was written from the perspective of Jesus Christ. There's a live energy funk-rock sound to "Two Princes" that wins me over every time I hear it. The rapid-fire vocals have a cool, stream-of-consciousness vibe that reminds me of Peter Wolf's hip stage patter. Funny to me that this song shows up on lists of Best Songs and lists of Worst Songs.
Two facts about Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train":
1) It's about depression. The train analogy is an apt description.2) soul legend Booker T. Jones plays organ on the track but it's not at the forefront of the mix, so listen for it.
Few songs spend more time rattling around between our ears after we hear them than "Linger" by The Cranberries. Like the Meat Loaf song above, there's a melancholic tinge to this beautiful song now that vocalist Dolores O'Riordan has passed away. More than just an earworm, this song has burrowed into my heart. We never miss a chance to belt out the soaring chorus to "What's Up" on those rare occasions we hear it played. It is empowering, uplifting, and fun. The song is often found on the same Worst Songs lists as "Two Princes", yet I take comfort in knowing there are others who dare to declare their enjoyment of the song. According to whosampled.com, Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" has been sampled 86 times since its 1982 release. Allen "Allstar" Gordon's decision to use a piece of "Human Nature" in a remix of SWV's first single "Right Here" levels up the track in the best way possible, like they were meant for each other. We bought their first album in 1986, slept on their next two releases, and then picked up 1991's The Greatest Hits before we heard Salt N Pepa's "Shoop" and that groove became our obsession. Found the instrumental on the twelve-inch single, and our obsession was quelled. Arrested Development was a breath of fresh air with their first album and the singles "Tennessee" and "Mr. Wendal". The vibe and groove of those singles had a great effect on this listener as 1993 was a year of transition, both personally and professionally.
Clunky covers: "Cat's In The Cradle"
CD 3 score: 47.37
The UK charts were dominated by house music if NOW Yearbook '93 is any indicator. Some of the songs chased us off the dancefloor, but the Stonebridge Radio Mix of "Show Me Love" is a standing invitation to get out there and feel alive. Yeah, it's a remix of a track from 1990, yet we don't find it useless. Quite the contrary, actually. We keep using it up, and it has yet to wear us out. Another song that gets up off our butts is Haddaway's "What Is Love", a dancefloor banger. That rubbery bassline and relentless, pulsing beat take us to our happy place each and every time. So freakin' good.
Clunky covers: "Go West", "Relight My Fire", "If I Can't Have You", "More, More, More"
Pointless remix: "Lost In Music"
CD 4 score: 10.53
We guessed there'd be a dozen tracks we liked, and we weren't too far off. Another dozen tracks were new to us, though none of them made any inroads with us. The tracks on NOW Yearbook '93 that we like, we really like. As we pointed out throughout our review, the album has an abnormally high rate of cover tracks and needless remixes. We'll be returning this one to the wild rather than our CD cabinet.
NOW Yearbook '93 score: 24.36
We mentioned our experience with NOW Yearbook '93 to a friend, and a few weeks later, they shared the files from their rip of NOW Yearbook Extra '93. Looking at the tracklist, this is going to be even worse than the previous excursion into the British hits of 1993. More needless cover versions and pointless remixes. Since we've always been about the music here at The Hideaway, we're going to listen to those files for this post.
Annie Lennox's sweet "Little Bird" makes us want to fly, fly, fly rather than cry, cry, cry. We love everything about this post-Eurythmics track, from the pulsing beat, the Art of Noise-style huffing and puffing vocals as music, to Lennox's voice soaring above it all. We dance around the room to this song as if no one is watching, as if our lives depended on it. And then we feel better, no matter how good we felt when the song started.
As we've stated previously, it took us a while to connect with Sting's solo stuff, but once the connection was made, songs like "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" came into wonderful focus. For us, it's a song of optimism, a song that shares our pain and disappointment in things we once believed in that have since revealed themselves to be false or not what we thought they were. The optimism is from the things we cling to, the things that will never let us down. We get that every person will have different disappointments and different lifelines, but the thing that should unite us is the shared experience, the setbacks followed by perseverance. It's all too much for a four-and-a-half-minute pop song, but we enjoy it every time we hear it.
Clunky covers: "The Tracks Of My Tears"Pointless remixes: "(We Don't Need) This Fascist Groove Thang" and "Fade To Grey"
CD ONE score: 10.53
We bought the "It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day" compact disc single at first sight without hearing the song first. There is a particularly striking photo on the cover that caught our eye, along with eight edits/remixes of the title track. Seeing Civiles and Cole's names on the back of the disc sealed the deal as we left the store, hoping for a C+C Music Factory-styled dance club hit. We were not disappointed with the track and were surprised while listening to The Bodyguard soundtrack to hear it. Maybe it's a clunky cover or a pointless remix for others, but for us, it's a great groove.
Another great groove is Jade's "Don't Walk Away". The song positively struts while the three voices sound both vulnerable and flirty. SWV (Sisters With Voices) uses the same balance of emotions in their infectious "I'm So Into You", making a nice little jam with the two previous tracks.
Clunky cover: "Many Rivers To Cross"
CD TWO score: 15.79
Clunky covers: "Disco Inferno", "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love", "This Is It", "Everlasting Love", "Don't Look Any Further"Pointless remixes: "We Are Family", "Copacabana (At The Copa)"
CD THREE score: 0.00
NOW Yearbook Extra '93 score: 8.77
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