Enjoy the power and beauty of your POLL: Now That's What I Call Music! 43 (1999) UK

Perfect Moment - It's never grown on me, but the spare, watery Different Corner synths are quite nice, make me wish they'd herald in a better song. Funny what once constituted an event single.
You Needed Me - Off with you lot. Their last No. 1 thankfully.
I Want It That Way - Unsullied and assured, the most 'instant classic' boy band hit since "Back for Good", but I find it hard to like all that much, maybe for those same reasons I dunno
Sweet Like Chocolate - So evocative and gorgeous, makes me think of old home videos, and the video (late sunset again) of those Cadbury's Coronation Street sponsorship ads that are among my earliest TV memories. One of my favourite No. 1s
Bring It All Back - I'm the correct age for S Club's more upbeat songs (like so) to have made a formative impression although there's two, maybe three, I enjoy even more
Boom Boom Boom Boom - Wide-eyed twee pop cutesiness, stuff like this (and 2 Times, Satuday Night, The Key The Secret) are like the secret legacy of C86 or something
9PM (Till I Come) - Another likably sullen dance tune that gives little away and whose sunset-that-late-May-evening evocations are right there in the title. Fourth biggest seller of the year. I quite like the hoary 'Fields of Love' too.
Turn Around - Has essentially one trick, but deploys it very well (better than Stardust challops)
Red Alert - Brilliant cacophony of incongruent sounds, single of the year contender
Without Love - Pretty lush handbag disco as I recall, probably her best hit and yet the last of note
Look at Me - '...I'm your drama queen if that's your thiiiing baby, I can even do Shirley Bassey'
I Breathe Again - Has that failproof Missing/Where Do You Go/Barbie Girl type rhythm, certainly the superior of the two soapstar tunes here which means nothing
Viva La Radio - A Saturday Night descendant with some Latino/batucada/Give It Up-style interference. Maybe I'm too partial to this sort of bubblegum but this is like the aural equivalent of a packet of Skips.
Doodah - Second revivalist hit for the B-Gone-52s. To the surprise of all, it sounds rather like the first.
Say It Again - Lite-R&B Eurovision entry, with wicky wicky record scratches and a general aura that White on Blonde was what 1997 was really about
Love of a Lifetime - Even more forgettable Brit soul, though the girls did this thing a lot better than Another Level, Damage etc. What with the acoustic element this might be better sped up and 2-stepped.
Private Number - Did anyone else ever use synth-sitar? Pretty cack anyway.
Your Kisses Are Charity - So is listening to this! The joke writes itself when faced with a record aspiring no higher than perfunctory 90s UB40
Greatest Day - Even to such as I, interest in CD1 seems to quickly fade quite fast
Word Up - Unbelievably a Timabland production, though clearly he wasn't bringing his A- or B-game, in fact he may not even have been awake
Dayz Like That - Not bad, good use of nu-R&B rhythmic skittering that makes it superior to Honeyz
Forever - Identitkit pop-trance whooshiness. Pop careers are not built on the likes.

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) - I appreciate this is loathed in some quarters, but that mid-00s listening sealed it forever in my affections, those minor chords and airy backing vocals against the sights outside. Angelos Epithemiou did a parody I loved as a 13yo.
In Our Lifetime - Nice contrast with the next artist, who later produced their best ever track "Inner Smile"
You Get What You Give - I used to think the noise in the intro was sampled from the Art of Noise Krypton Factor theme. I'll eat my kyrptonite if this doesn't win.
Pumping on Your Stereo - Their most pastichey single up to this point but fun all the same. I don't know if Teenage Fanclub ever let rip like this (and that may be one reason why Supergrass piss all over em).
Lovestruck - The parent album has more interesting material, but this mostly wants to tick the we're-back box a la "Maria" and so did it.
Ooh La La - A creaky box of cliched samples and beats it may be but even standard-issue boozy big beat is very much a Good Thing in my book. Similarly I'd have liked Loop da Loop's "Hazel" to have featured on 42.
Hey Boy Hey Girl - The Chems learn from Gatecrasher dynamics and 'go' bigroom, except they're the Chems so the result is something like a stentorian vision of acid-house, both Glasto- and MoS-friendly. Helps invent 00s electro by default.
Right Here Right Now - Both this (Fatboy goes 'psychedelic' without it sounding at all like the Chems) and HBHG are thankfully presented in full, with the patient sweeping builds allowed to proceed without distraction. This is the only dance single I own as a music box.
Saltwater - Open-ended with a melody that's barely scratched in, which is the point. Just like so many of the minor-key tracks on this album I found this enigmatic and quite beautiful. Still do.
Cloud Number 9 - Abruptly ends a magnificent run of tracks (although it's the second Chicane job in a row), but this sort of gossamer style (more boy band than chillout) does quite suit him. Superior MOR.
Coffee & TV - The second and likely best of 13's deceptive trad singles, sadly sans Milky-goes-to-heaven organ exitlude
Beat Mama - Sounds like Toploader covering the Banshees' "O Baby". Its legacy is a longstanding injoke between me and a friend (that we can't even remember the origins of) that this and Geri's "Bag It Up" were George Harrison's favourite songs ever
Pick a Part That's New - Less of the Pearl Jam-as-Neil Young factor than before. It's fine? The little guitar bit after the choruses is good.. but this would be better with Gaz Coombes (or pretty much anyone) singing shocker
Bring It On - One of their more Beta Bandish tracks but it doesn't really scream 'single' let alone 'Gomez's only appearance on a Now'. I'm not sure they knew how to own their moment.
Secret Smile - Again we're in minor-chord conservatory sunset territory as the numbers at the bottom of the CD player display (a maximum of 15) disappear
I Know What I'm Here For - James do SFA, James do SFA (also, where the hell is "Northern Lites"?)
Synth & Strings - An old friend's favourite single of all time. Certainly it's unique to take a eurodisco strings sample in 99 and set it not in a funky/diva/frenchtouch framework but rather scuttling within +8 hard house. I love it
Better Off Alone - Down here because the commercial single wasn't out yet and they weren't expecting something so huge. Mainstream trance's answer to "Computer Love", quite affecting.
To Be in Love - tasteful and smoky, in the on-off tradition of 'some random small dance hit' Now closers. MAW did more with this jazz-funk sound when remixing Aaliyah and the Spice Girls, ditching the garage pretty much altogether.

This one is a LOT better than the last one. Loads of things I woukd vote for but have perhaps outworn their welcome in more recent years.

I've always really liked Coffee + TV - that felt like the last truly excellent Blur single maybe, and it's nice to hear Graham on an A-side

Popular vote for "You Get What You Give."

Unpopular opinion: I can't stand "I Want it That Way."

Synth & Strings tbh

Lots of UK stuff I don't know, but I'd probably vote "Red Alert" regardless.

Saltwater is the one I still choose to play. I Want It That Way and You Get What You Give are runners up. As much as I was into MAW I could always take or leave To Be In Love

I Want It That Way - Unsullied and assured, the most 'instant classic' boy band hit since "Back for Good", but I find it hard to like all that much, maybe for those same reasons I dunno

tell me why-ee

Wd probably vote Sweet Like Chocolate

Sweet Like Chocolate is great but I really really don't need to ever hear it again at this stage

I'm looking at some of the rest of the garbage on this list which helps

lotta good shit came out in 98-99, why is none of it on this list

Yomanda 'Synth & Strings' (which I bought as a single at the time) gets my vote but 'Red Alert' by Basement Jaxx is a close second.

I really want to hear this right now.

Not a good Now! imo but obviously a few good dance hits - India deserves more love but hard not to go for Red Alert or Right Here Right Now

Culture Club were still having hits in 1999?

"In Our Lifetime" would make my shortlist too

A Texas greatest hits poll might be worth doing? I'm not really a fan and nor is anyone I know but there's some good singles.

lotta good shit came out in 98-99, why is none of it on this list

uk quirkiness i guess? certainly a golden era for american pop! fortunately imo we had a limited appetite for euro novelties, only allowing two vengaboys singles onto the hot 100 (tho i liked both of them including the one here). LOL that lolly song

admittedly i do not know most of these. ordinarily i'd vote "i want it that way" without hesitation but i have slightly soured on it recently due to its general overexposure plus a really bad prince royce cover from last year. so hmmm i think i'll give it to alice deejay. also considered "saltwater"

"red alert" and "hey boy hey girl" were both in the category of tracks that would be tolerated as incidental music in the background of mtv reality shows or to be looped during relay races at summer camp but that not many kids actually wanted to listen to in full otherwise (again, here in the states)

lotta good shit came out in 98-99, why is none of it on this list

This is one of those which features a ton of good acts' worst ever singles. Voted for Baz.

voted red alert

Culture Club were still having hits in 1999?

I think they’d just reformed and there was a bit of enthusiasm for them, similar to Blondie’s reformation around the same time.

It was around this time that I actively started following the charts and also that my family got satellite tv, so I would spend several hours a day watching music television, so I have very vivid memories of a lot of these and their accompanying videos, for better or worse (I vaguely remember finding Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen somewhat charming/intriguing the first time I heard it, but its appeal wore off very quickly). Several track names that trigger immediate flashbacks to the Chris Evans Virgin Radio Breakfast Show televised simulcast on Sky One

A Texas greatest hits poll might be worth doing? I'm not really a fan and nor is anyone I know but there's some good singles.

same really, except i'd go so far as to say there's some great singles

Summer Son and Inner Smile are big favourites

Halo and the Wu Tang version of Say What You Want are mine

Yeah, I liked Texas, but had to go New Radicals even before reading comments here. "I Want It That Way" oh come on off it!

this was the winter/spring before I finished primary school and started high school. I didn't love primary school and my last year of it, but I hated high school a LOT more, and sometimes I think my life has never been as good as it was in the summer/autumn before this. So there's a lot of nostalgia for me looking at this.

The BBC4 Top Of The Pops repeats are currently in this era too, so a lot of stuff is a bit fresher in my head than it would need to be. I've done my thoughts based on memory without a trip down Youtube. It's 3am and I cannot sleep because I've had a challenging day so it was a lovely distraction to do this:

"perfect moment"
she wanted to be a popstar but she would have been far more suited to a Jane McDonald/Claire Sweeney style musical career. I will not forgive Love Actually for trying to gaslight me into thinking she is fat. There's an alternative world where this song makes more sense as a winning song for Michelle McManus

"you needed me"
no I didn't. Ronan Keating's voice is one of my most hated sounds in all pop music, a grunting foghorn with no sense of nuance, restraint or emotion

"I want it that way"
people always rate this one but I think it's a bit rubbish - the lyrics are nonsense and while it's silly to look for deep meaning in a boyband song they already did this much better on previous hits

"sweet like chocolate"
sometimes I think this is the peak of UK Garage, and UK Garage is the best music ever. It's not actually the genre's peak but this is so sweet, so warm, so inviting, it's hard to not be swept up in the tweeness. I love that this sets out a world of crossover dance-pop that's subtle and slight instead of brash and bold

"bring it all back"
too Disney coded, forced joviality. Steps were designed by Pete Waterman to be ABBA on speed, this sounds like a band designed to justify an exec's new car

"boom boom boom boom"
this is the third Vengasingle that sounds like this but it's somehow the best, it's cheap and plastic but it also manages to be charmingly silly

"9pm (till I come)"
I bought this on single at the time. I think it might have been a reward for actually attending my Sports Day which I really did not want to attend, on account of being fat and unathletic. Very strong memories of driving home from Woolworths with this blasting on the radio and being in love with the idea of going to Ibiza, even though I was 11 and thought discos were nice things adults could do sober before 9pm

"turn around"
I also prefer this to Stardust even though it's the same song, purely because the wordless ooh-ooh-ooh hook near the end just feels so giddy and ecstatic. One of P&S went on to become Freemasons who saved gay nightclubs from being hell on earth in the 00s. The singer went to marry Vanesa Feltz and their episode of Celebrity Wife Swap still lives in my head rent-free

"red alert"
recent conversation with a friend about how she never "got" Basement Jaxx and I think it's easy to understand why - they made pop music as much as they made dance music, and they made their melting pot of styles and influences look effortless, which means it's easy to overlook how much actually went into their music. This is a great single and I don't think it would even make my top five of theirs, which is an incredible run

"without love"
without a memory, sorry Dina

"look at me"
my dream is to go on X Factor and sing this as poorly as Geri does, but with me mincing around the stage being my annoying self. It worked for Rylan, it worked for Jedward, and this song which is clearly designed to be a magnet for every criticism levelled at her would also work for me

"I breathe again"
my celebrity doppelganger. To me this is like one of those 80s italo-disco one-hit-wonder crossovers, a chorus that feels like it was just pulled out of the air, although the air is thick with the smell of Liquid Gold

"viva la radio"
the pop version of stabilisers on your first bike, it's not so unlikeable that it's awful but it's so obviously designed for children that it's too easy a target

"doodah"
don'tdah

"say it again"
another excellent chorus but completely lacking in star power or charisma. It's telling that Jenny Frost went on to join Atomic Kitten in their "bleach away the personality" era then presented a show where she helped people dress in a blander, safer way

"love of a lifetime"
did you know Honeyz got their name from being accosted in and out of nightclub by men calling them "the honeys?" A fact more interesting than this sludge of a song, easily their weakest single

"private number"
911 were actually quite fun and likeable sometimes, but not at this time

"your kisses are charity"
I prefer to pay taxes

"the greatest day"
I like Beverley Knight... as a person. She seems like a really good character, does a lot for charity and with passion and belief. Unlike her singing style, which feels like bluster and shouting at the expense of any actual sense of emotion, a Tom Jones for millennials

"word up"
Timbaland at his peak doing a cover of the funkiest song ever made and yet this is how it turns out, and I'm not even sure who to blame. I remember Mel G doing lots of TV performances of this were she stayed sat in a chair

"dayz like that"
a truly excellent single, one of the few convincing attempts by Brits to ape US r&b, and even better in it's UK Garage remixes

"forever"
true story: I once went on a date with a Tina Cousins superfan. I had just turned 18, I met him in town, I realised I had forgotten my ID, so we went back to his house. I thought I was going to get some fun but instead he spent the night talking me through his collection of Tina Cousins merch and rarities. I did not see him again and when I hear her voice I am instantly triggered

"everybody's free"
I'm Fourteen This Is Deep: The Song

"in our lifetime"
shiny hooks galore, it's not their fault their songs were played so often

"you get what you give"
I love the melody and the sound of this record but the lyrics, yeesh. I loved it at the time but now I roll my eyes at the posturing. He wrote great songs for proper popstars after this too which makes it hard to take his persona on this seriously in hindsight, nobody who truly wanted to reject celebrity culture would go on to work with a dismal non-artist like Ronan Keating

"pumping on your stereo"
I hate the video for this with a passion so it's hard to be objective but even the best Supergrass songs are 90% radio nostalgia and 10% "this is ok I guess"

"lovestruck"
this is not something I would ever want to listen to but I can admire it because it's so obviously doing what it sets out to do

"ooh la la"
graffiti, breakdancing, Guy Ritchie, big beat's peak

"hey boy hey girl"
I've heard this as an intro to so many DJ sets and I understand why - it's instantly recognisable but it needs something extra to get it going, and playing another song over it gives it the oomph it needs to work

"right here right now"
similarly, this song needed something extra, and it got it in the OnePhatDeeva mash-up released a few months later. Her vocal gives the song the structure to elevate it, while those dramatic spiralling synths give the drama her original needed. I will never reach for this when that version exists

"saltwater"
I've never clicked with this but I've never heard it in a nightclub so this might be a me issue

"cloud number nine"
no memory of this

"coffee & TV"
the older I get the more bewildered I am by Blur being a beloved band in the UK. Albarn is an annoying nepobaby, James is a Tory cheesewanker, Coxon seems to be in the wrong band, and the video for this is wasted entirely on a song undeserving of such a distinct visual

"beat mama"
ewww no

"pick a part that's new"
I don't hate the Stereophonics as much as I should, in part because a close pal truly loves them and they make her happy in a way most people don't ever connect with a band/artwork. I'm under no illusions that I like them but they're far from the most awful thing here

"bring it on"
my parents took me to see Gomez, it was one of the first gigs I ever went to. Other people went to see Steps and Spice Girls but I had to be a fucking weirdo and it wasn't even that good

"secret smile"
I really love this, even though it belongs to the earnest-cringe category of Iris/Rockabye only-Americans-can-make-this style of music. His delivery makes this feel a lot more intimate and personal than it could be in someone else's hands, and the arrangement captures the urgency of intense feelings that the lyrics only hint at. I had the album and it had a LOT of songs I would still rep for

"I know what I'm here for"
glad someone does

"synth & strings"
this is my vote. In the town I grew up this kind of music was for "wee bams" ie townies, chavs, neds, delinquents, whatever you want to call them. They would never have welcomed 11 yr old me who was fat, and already camp before he was gay. But this is the campest tune! It's big disco strings set to a massive donk with the cheesiest, most shameless breakdown made. This really speaks to me and if it comes on anywhere I am immediately on a table with a drink in each hand grinning like a maniac

"better off alone"
this is kinda like "Billie Jean" or "Never Gonna Give You Up" to me now - it's basically a meme, a ringtone, a sample wheeled out every few years grafted to whatever contemporary pop trend is around. It's hard to remember this before that and consider it as an actual song. But there's a reason it keeps getting recycled - that mournful yet urgent melody, and the economy of language that tells a full story, do you think you're better off alone? talk to me, this is drama and heartbreak on the dancefloor

"to be in love"
this feels a bit tasteful and refined and safe here, but if you pitch it up +5% in the mix and feel India become less restrained this is actually top-tier diva house

in fact one of my fondest memories is when I went to see Scooter in concert and the warm-up act was a local DJ who basically played the Kevin & Perry Go Large soundtrack, but played about 20% faster than it should be, and thinking I was going to explode with joy during "Synth & Strings"

that write-up was so much better than i think listening to this whole thing would be

Yes excellent writeup. I also love "In and Out of My Life", just as much as RHRH if not more, and how the wooziness of the FB sample adds to the delirium she's singing about. Sadly absent from Now 44.

The Feltz/Ben show I remember isn't Wife Swap but All-Star Family Fortunes, where Vernon Kay would cue in a singalong of Turn Around every single time it was his turn to guess something with teeth increasingly gritted.

Glad to see all the love for Synth & Strings

their episode of Wife Swap was with Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee. Debbie had no idea who he was, even when he was singing the song right in her face and she refused to believe he was a celebrity himself, it was excellent TV.

lol boxedjoy great writeup but I think I disagree with about 90%

my OH and I listened to all the NOWs in order up until about Y2K. Around 1999 were some of the worst - sorry to everyone who loves Texas, New Radicals, Stereophonics, Cast, Geri Halliwell, Semisonic and lacklustre pop/garage singles but some of this music is some of my most-hated of all time. I genuinely struggle to choose one song I wouldn't switch off from all of those.

I do actually love music, and lots of 90s music, but this specific era seems to condense everything I loathe.

I put the acapella of 'Ray Of Light' over 'Right Here Right Now' in a mix years ago and that just worked even better than I expected.

Just remembered the titular radio in the Lolly video has a transparent exterior. As 1999 as it gets?

iloveitiloveit!!

Lovwly write ups boxedjoy. Btw of all the big dance acts of that time Basement Jaxx are the ones I never truly "got" either. I always found their music a bit shrill and, I dunno, clunky. But yes also falling between the cracks of pop and electronic dance somehow

i don't even know what i'm gonna vote for but probably it will be red alert i suspect. me and a friend were in another friend's studio once, none of us having seen each other in quite a long time, when he decided to play it really loudly and we all sang along really loudly.

1.1 Martine McCutcheon - Perfect Moment – Shit, only good in V/VM version 1/10
1.2 Boyzone - You Needed Me – Even more shit, fuck off Ronan 0/10
1.3 Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way – Many years later I have kind of come around to this. Kind of. 5/10
1.4 Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate – This is a frustrating one as it’s a fantastic piece of music let down by nasty cheap production (that snare sound!) that led me for years to imagine I had a low-bitrate MP3, but no, that's just what it sounds like. 7/10
1.5 S Club 7 - Bring It All Back – I am basically never going to be in the mood to listen to this, but it does what it’s supposed to very well. 6/10
1.6 Vengaboys - Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom – Obviously this is cheese too, but if you can get over that it’s kind of perfect, I don’t know if I could bring myself to dance to it, but that’s clearly my problem. 8/10
1.7 ATB - 9 PM (Till I Come) – Found my review of this – You can’t control which songs are going to be important in your life, and so it is with 9PM (Til I Come), on the surface a fairly standard trance track, but which marked a watershed moment for me. I went to Glastonbury in 1999 as basically an indie kid, and joined a friend who’d brought a bag of little white pills with a Mitsubishi logo stamped into them. Of the twenty or thirty bands I’d planned to see, I caught perhaps two. The rest of the four days was mainly spent dancing outside a small stage advertising an energy drink called ‘Indigo’. I still remember the names and faces of some of the other people there, and of course I can remember the track on heaviest rotation. Going out had always been problematic for me – clubs playing dance music seemed aggressive and unfriendly (“like being trapped in a lift at the circus”) and indie clubs in the late 90s were far from a haven of positivity. This was something else – joy, community, the overwhelming feeling that we were all sharing an experience and that everything was just going to be alright. On returning to university, I found that my friends were unable to understand this (and were in fact disgusted by the idea) so I went out and found new friends, new music, new ideas. These new friends weren’t clubbers, and I certainly didn’t start listening to trance, but I’d been unhappy with my life and my friends and now I’d found that making a clean break was easy. And it’s all down to ATB’s (PM (Til I Come). I don’t even really like the single – it’s cut-down highlights with all the build and release missing, and that silly vocal sample is jammed up in the forefront where you can’t ignore it. this is what we danced to, and it still moves something in me, somehow. There’s a yearning for the new there, a montage of all the promise of the future, and I’m just glad to have it in my life. A 10 then – though it probably doesn’t really deserve it in the cold light of day, who needs the cold light of day anyway? 10/10
1.8 Phats & Small - Turn Around – I associated funky house with the worst nightclubs in Worcester and Southampton, and have never been able to shake this off. 5/10
1.9 Basement Jaxx - Red Alert – This was also played in the crap nightclubs, but it’s good enough to escape their vortex, preferred some of their later singles though. 7/10
1.10 Dina Carroll - Without Love – Dina had a great voice and an endless succession of nothingy singles like this one. 5/10
1.11 Geri Halliwell - Look at Me – An utterly ridiculous single but also kind of undeniable. 6/10
1.12 Adam Rickitt - I Breathe Again – Adam you did not and do not have my consent to make that noise in my ear. 0/10
1.13 Lolly - Viva La Radio – I thought of Lolly as a kiddy version of Daphne & Celeste, obviously not as good though. 5/10
1.14 Cartoons – DooDah – Forgotten follow-up hit, I can see straight away why this is next to Lolly. 3/10
1.15 Precious - Say It Again – Our Eurovision entry for the year, finished 12th, sounds about right. 3/10
1.16 Honeyz - Love of a Lifetime – The group Precious wanted to be, and in turn they wanted to be Mis-Teeq, who in turn wanted to be TLC. Song is fine but forgettable. 5/10
1.17 911 - Private Number – Dull single from non-threatening boy band. 2/10
1.18 Culture Club - Your Kisses Are Charity – Forgot completely that they had a reunion and comeback around this time. Nothing particularly wrong with this but I was impatient for it to end. 5/10
1.19 Beverley Knight - The Greatest Day – Proper grown up r&b pop music for grown-ups to dance to, I have never grown up, sorry. 5/10
1.20 Melanie G (B) - Word Up – No memory whatsoever of this existing, would describe it as “perfunctory” – we do not need another version of Word Up. 5/10
1.21 Fierce - Dayz Like That – Yeah this is fine, somewhere between Mis-Teeq and TLC on the continuum. 7/10
1.22 Tina Cousins – Forever – Sounds like a Eurovision entry from 2007 3/10
2.1 Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – I cannot parse this as music enough to have any feelings about it. 5/10
2.2 Texas - In Our Lifetime – Never really a fan at all, but surprised at how much I enjoyed this, especially as it seems to be sampling a song (China Girl) I can’t stand. 7/10
2.3 New Radicals - You Get What You Give – I’ve never heard anything else from him that I like at all, but fuck he really struck gold with this one. 9/10
2.4 Supergrass - Pumping on Your Stereo – NME (?) used to do a “Pumpkin on Your Stereo” column HA HA HA. Not one of their best singles, but it’s fine. 7/10
2.5 Madness – Lovestruck – Pretty sure I’ve heard this before, but never paid attention enough to form an opinion, and yeah it’s fine, about what I’d expect. 6/10
2.6 The Wiseguys - Ooh La La – That big beat/breakbeat moment I associate most with Bentley Rhythm Ace, this sounded a lot better than I’d remembered. 8/10
2.7 The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl – One of the few dance tracks played in the indie clubs I for some reason went to, so many memories of dancing to this, and listening to it I’m instantly transported back there. 9/10
2.8 Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now – Much too popular to be cool at this point, but divorced from the (often shit) pop culture of the late 90s it’s just a solid example of the genre. 8/10
2.9 Chicane feat. Maire Brennan – Saltwater – Was not aware of this at all at the time, but on discovering it in the 2010s it instantly became a favourite. Ideally we’d have the slow build-up of the full 12” mix here but unlike with ATB the single mix still sounds great. 10/10
2.10 Bryan Adams - Cloud Number Nine – Go away old man (Bryan was 38 or 39 at this point) 2/10
2.11 Blur - Coffee & TV – One of Blur’s best singles, just a beautiful piece of work, should have let Graham take over more. 8/10
2.12 Cast - Beat Mama / 2.13 Stereophonics - Pick a Part That's New – It’s a cliché to hate Stereophonics, so let’s extend it to all the other post-Britpop Britrock Lad culture or w/e acts. Fuck off Stereophonics, fuck off Cast, and multi-fuck-off Oasis. 1/10
2.14 Gomez -Bring It On – Gomez certainly had a schtick, didn’t they? Not one I ever understood the appeal of, but they certainly went all-in on it. 1/10
2.15 Semisonic - Secret Smile – My housemate’s girlfriend had a wet-look perm, and we cruelly used to sing “nobody knows it, but she’s got a wet look perm” when she arrived at the house. 0/10
2.16 James - I Know What I'm Here For – Do you now? Not sure what I need from James, but it’s not this. 2/10
2.17 Yomanda - Synth & Strings – This is the strung-out-at-the-club-at-2am version of funky house music, don’t know if I ever actually danced to it, a respectful 6/10
2.18 DJ Jurgen Presents Alice Deejay - Better Off Alone – This is the perfect distillation of the age, the beauty and melancholy from the cheapest sounds, achieved apparently accidentally. 9/10
2.19 Masters at Work Presents India - To Be in Love – No memories of this uh funky house remix of a soul song from the early 80s? It’s doing something different at least, unfortunately not something that really works. 5/10

I will never forget the life of me understand why people like “Sweet Like Chocolate”

*for, not forget

in fact one of my fondest memories is when I went to see Scooter in concert and the warm-up act was a local DJ who basically played the Kevin & Perry Go Large soundtrack, but played about 20% faster than it should be, and thinking I was going to explode with joy during "Synth & Strings"

― boxedjoy, Sunday, March 15, 2026 2:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I love this little vignette, it makes me happy.

The Mel G “Word Up” is new to me and I had to go and look it up. Everything about it is so weirdly cheap and half arsed.

Not least the video which is Verne Troyer in mini me get up and Melg G clearly in front of different green screens, possibly on different contnents. Mel is wearing something that looks like a starlight express cast off that someone has attached some spare bits of lighting rig to and is, not even, had heartedly gyrating to the beat.

i never heard this version of "word up" until seeing it on this poll. i actually owned that austin powers soundtrack it appeared on too, i guess the only track i listened to from it was "beautiful stranger" ;_;

There were two videos for Mel G's 'Word Up' with The Wiz's surreal CGI-fest one appearing first.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYoGd1Ljq9s

I've never really liked 'Coffee & TV' but it does probably have the best video of anything on this comp.

CaAL I really enjoyed those write-ups, espcially for 9pm, and even though I don't always agree I also think that everything you wrote is correct

the power of pop music!

Finally am getting around to hearing this. The first two songs are the most laughably awful and hilarious shitsongs I've ever heard. "You NEEDED ME!"

And now we have fucking "I Want It That Way". This shit is the fucking Beatles compared to the last two. This comp is not off to a very good start.

yeah the second CD is notably better than the first, you can see what they were going with but if you have no tolerance for boyzone then it doesn't work

The Club Mix of "9 PM Til I Come" is better than tis version.

oh of course, see my "review" upthread

What’s with all the goofy campy novelty songs on this? A UK dance hit did “Camptown Races”?

“Love of a Lifetime” is very pretty.

Yeah this Culture Club song is boring af. Boy George’s real comeback single was “Fire Desire” with Avenue D.

This is the first time I’ve ever heard the sunscreen song. So they turned Life’s Little Instruction Book into a song. I can see why it was so widely mocked.

“Once in a Lifetime” sounds like a huge ripoff of TLC’s “Creep”. Probably intentional. The R&B songs are clearly the winners on this comp so far.

Oh God. “You Get What You Give”. The late-90s was so full of happy earnest rock like this. This lameass couldn’t kick Beck, Marilyn Manson, or Courtney Love’s asses in a million years. Hanson, yes.

After all these “Say ho!”s in “Ooh La La” I keep expecting the singer to yell out “Say Eat my Goal! Say eat my goal!”. Sorry, obscure reference for y’all.

The Chemical Brothers song and “Right Here Right Now” are total snoozers. Big beat has aged horribly. I don’t care how many times you put “right here! right now!” into a song it’s not gonna get any better! Nice strings though.

“Saltwater” is beautiful! I love Chicane so much. Best song on the comp so far.

“Coffee and TV” was the first Blur song I’d ever heard, so it’s a sentimental favorite. I didn’t know Damon wasn’t the singer on this until many years later.

So this is Cast. The band the guy from the La’s formed because he was so sick of playing the same 12 songs over and over and over again for years. Not bad!

Stereophonics also surprisingly not bad! Sounds like Oasis. I’ve certainly heard worse. I liked “Dakota” too (tgat was tge one that goes “You made me FEEEEL like the one!!”), which was the only hint of success they had over here.

“To Be in Love” is a nice surprise. Another grand R&B dance monster. Great bass line. Unfortunately it ends too soon. And that’s a wrap! Great comp! I promise not to pollute this thread with my ramblings ever again.

I like both the Chems and Fatboy songs but I think boxedjoy is right they work better with a vocal on top

I've put a few Turquoise Jeep songs on top of Chemical Bros ones and they come together really well, never occurred to me to do Hey Boy Hey Girl for whatever reason

That was the thing about the Stereophonics - it wasn't like they had mediocre singles all the time. Once in a while they got it right.

Bartender / Thief - comes crashing in and the sneeringest vocal for quite some time gave them their first big hit. Dakota, as I said at the time... Help me! I like the new Stereophonics single!

Whereas Mr Writer, sneeringest but pathetic too.

yeah Bartender and the Thief has an excellent intro. that one more than any others really is Supergrass in all but name.

Mr Writer being the lead single to a huge blockbuster album that was the follow-up to a huge blockbuster album has always intrigued me. It's like Drive in that sense (and not in the quality sense you get me).

Stereophonics are one of the all time worst bands in history wtf?

the biggest issue with stereophonics is his fucking voice, including the fucking lyrics. the meat & potatoes britrock behind it is not a factor at play

His voice is unacceptable. Just this bland rawk groan like someone struggling with their bowels. The music is bland. The songwriting is bland. I remember someone at school saying they listened to Stereophonics when they wanted something like Green Day but "not as rocky". They're the Manics for people who don't enjoy having emotions. Or at least, the emotion I feel when I hear them is one of feeling really really bad

I didn't actually buy any, just sayin.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Not a winner I can argue with