NOW PARTY ANTHEMS

The latest from the Now brand, this set collects some of the club and remix songs that dominated things in 2012 out on the dancefloor and on the urban radio stations, which means tracks like the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (the 4FRNT remix with Kimbra), Katy Perry's "California Gurls" (featuring Snoop Dogg, or Snoop Lion, or whatever he calls himself these days), Britney Spears' aging popster dance hit "Till the World Ends," Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" (with an able vocal guest spot from Christina Aguilera), and the Skrillex remix of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," among others. The good news? Hearing this set is like listening to an urban dance station on a freeway drive to Detroit (or wherever) -- it's a time capsule in a sense. The bad news? It's like listening to an urban dance station on a freeway drive to Detroit (or wherever). That's the nature of these kinds of collections -- they're immediate, and that's their strength, but they're also a recent kind of nostalgia by summer's end. If you're having your dance party this weekend, this will get things started. If you're waiting until Halloween, say, to have that dance party, this set will already be half out of date. That's the nature of Now -- quite quickly it becomes Remember When.... ~ Steve Leggett