NOW Vault '84 [2024]

The second Now Yearbook features 77 licensable UK hit singles from 1984. It was released in October 2021. A follow-up Extra came out in January 2022 with 60 more UK hit singles. Then came '80-'84: The Final Chapter (December 2022) and its respective Extra sequel (February 2023), with 47 more vintage 1984 tracks between them. Add them all up, and you have 184 songs from the UK charts circa 1984.

NOW Yearbook Vault '84 was released in October 2024. The four-compact-disc set features an additional 80 songs from 1984, whereas the limited-edition triple-disc blue vinyl version offers only 45 songs. Updating our earlier calculations, while discarding the vinyl's song count, we now have 264 songs from the 1984 UK charts across eighteen shiny silver discs. Let's take a listen to Vault '84 and rate each disc on a scale of 0-100.

"Sunset Now" is not even a Top 10 Heaven 17 song for me, yet it grabbed my attention opening CDOne. The ABC and Scritti Politti tracks continued the good grooves. We're not Banarama fans, but heaven help us, we enjoy hearing "The Wild Life", the theme song from the film of the same name, every now and then. The four tracks that run from Matt Bianco through Talk Talk are also favorites here at the HERChives. "Heaven" is usually a take-it-or-leave-it song; in this context, we'll take it. We also enjoy the run from China Crisis to the end of the disc.

CDOne score: 66.67

CDTwo begins with a few R&B tracks but doesn't start for us until track 4, "The Glamorous Life". Shannon and Shalamar follow it up on the good foot. (We love the alliterative artist sequencing, too.) The rock tracks kick in later on the disc with a short set from Twisted Sister, then Judas Priest and the Scorpions.

CDTwo score: 31.58 

The music of The Cocteau Twins sailed right through my ears when I was a much younger man, although they have since ensconced themselves among my favorite artists. "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" is a wonderful way to begin CDThree. Also, like The Icicle Works track. Another wonderful segue of tracks occurs from The Associates up to and including the M+M track. There's a nice three-song grouping further into the disc from Aztec Camera to XTC, but that's about it for the disc. 

CDThree score: 45.00

And then there is CDFour. Man oh man. Devoted to songs that didn't chart very high, if they charted at all on the UK charts. For our tastes and sensibilities, we never need to hear tracks 2, 4, 10, or 20 ever again. The rest are here to stay. The disc isn't as strong as the closing disc on Vault '83, but it is pretty good. 

CDFour score: 80.00

Listening to Vault '84 was a great experience, a reminder of all the songs we heard in real-time as well as the songs we have since discovered. Overall, we enjoyed just under half of the eighty songs – a very good tally for a fifth dive into the 1984 songs vault. Bonus points for the blue on black design, too. Our next vault exploration will be into NOW Yearbook Vault '81.

NOW Yearbook Vault '84 score: 47.50