Review Summary: It's gonna be may
While previous installments of the American Now That’s What I Call Music series had been typically released around six months apart, the fifth edition (
NOW 5) released only four months after its predecessor, just in time for the 2000 holiday season. The series’ fourth edition had undoubtedly exceeded expectations, going multi-platinum and reaching number one on the album chart, proving that the series was viable, far-reaching and popular.
NOW 4 was unique in the series for being an eclectic hits compilation, pulling songs from different global charts to fill out the running time. On the flip side,
NOW 5 is unabashedly filled with American chart hits, as all songs charted at no lower than #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, an impressive feat for a single compilation. While its reliance on high charting songs surely added to its marketability, it may also be why
NOW 5 doesn’t feel nearly as cohesive as some of its companions.
The biggest story for
NOW 5 from an artist standpoint is the first appearance of N*Sync on the compilation series, leading off the set with “It’s Gonna Be Me,” a song which still has lasting power to this day and is one of the defining songs of the teen-pop and boy band era. Don’t worry, if boy bands are your thing, this album has plenty of that for you. Of course, there had to be a Backstreet Boys song here (“Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely”), keeping up their streak of them being included on every single NOW edition to this point. But, other, relatively lower tier boy bands are here too - 98 Degrees’ best song “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)” logically follows N*Sync as a nice one-two punch at the top of the compilation. SoulDecision gets a little funky on “Faded” (though I still don’t understand how you can end a chorus with a rhyme pattern of “night/right/me”), and BBMak’s “Back Here” gives a nice transition from the pop section to the more rock section towards the end.
Speaking of rock, these early editions of the series are decently well rounded, including around four pop-rock tracks, traditionally at the end of the tracklist.
NOW 5 continues that pattern, though they do feel like overall more safer choices than what
NOW 4 gave us. Even after including blink-182 on the two previous installments, there’s no pop-punk representation on this edition. Instead we get a dabble of post-grunge with 3 Doors Down’s biggest chart hit “Kryptonite” (ironically, it hit number three), “It’s My Life” from Bon Jovi, (a good song, but still sounds a little froggy to this day), watered down but catchy pop rock with Nine Days’ “Absolutely Story of A Girl,” and yet another song about hating your Dad/family from Everclear (the maddeningly long “Wonderful”).
The rest of
NOW 5 is a combination of hits from artists that haven’t stood the test of time as well (Sisqo, Mya, both Jessica Simpson and Janet Jackson sounding completely overwhelmed by all standards), and a juicy glom of slightly less memorable pop hits (many from artists who are staples of the series like Britney Spears, Mandy Moore and Destiny’s Child). In the spirit of including some off the wall tracks on these early compilations, we get “Aaron’s Party” from Aaron Carter, which is a fun if not cringy relic of its time, but must have induced a lot of track skipping when this was first released. In case it wasn’t abundantly clear,
NOW 5 is a lot - a lot of hits from a lot of different voices for sure, but whether it was due to timing, its focus strictly on high charting hits, or just plain bad luck, it just doesn’t hit as well as it reads.
