Various Artists - Now That's What I Call Music! 20

Genre pop Publisher UMG Recordings External Links Official Website UMG Recordings

I'm not one who particularly understands what the hell is going on within the confines of the Billboard singles charts, in all honesty. I read them, see who's charting, have heard some of the songs (more often than not it's just out of my range---somewhat like indie-rock, pop radio starts to melt together into one big blob of gyrating goop), but for the most part reading the pop charts is like reading an alien language. For the life of me I still cannot figure out why Mariah Carey had such a ridiculously huge year with material that was really nauseatingly bad (and I like a fair amount of old Mariah).

The Now That's What I Call Music! series, now on it's 20th (!) installment is some sort of bizarre social experiment, wherein the biggest songs on the charts are corralled together like Noah preparing for bad weather. Where the hell else would you even consider placing Coldplay, Keith Urban, Bow Wow, Kelly Clarkson and Fall Out Boy together? These sorts of compilations have no chance of ever being 100% enjoyed by everyone who purchases them. I could be wrong, but there's just no way that anyone is this open minded.

But I suppose the point is to attract everyone to these albums as some sort of musical one-stop shopping. And truth be told there are a lot of cool songs to be found on Now That's What I Call Music! 20.

The Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha" is one of the hottest songs of the year, but I much prefer the version sans Busta Rhymes, as he clutters up the song needlessly. Typical of rappers mashed up into a pop/r&b song, Busta rhymes pointlessly, spitting out lyrics that don't remotely fit into the song. Luckily, that sort of thing is in short supply on the album.

And I could do without ever hearing Ciara, (who makes guest appearances on two tracks here), Bow Wow, Fall Out Boy, Keith Urban, or D.H.T. featuring Edmee' and their version of "Listen To Your Heart," and especially the loathsome Destiny's Child again. How the hell do you break up but then never leave the public eye? That's what I'd like to ask the three chicks in Destiny's Child. You just know that reunion is a year and a half away. Which, pop music being like a dog, is an eternity.

But you still have Coldplay's fantastic, beautiful "Fix You," wherein Chris Martin clearly addresses his actress-wife and her personal grief over the loss of her father; Franz Ferdinand's new wave guitar fun of "Do You Want To;" and Missy Elliott's dance-fever on "Lose Control."

You buy this sort of album to get the songs you heard on the radio but never were compelled to either download or spend (re: waste) the money on buying an album to get them. In that respect Now That's What I Call Music! 20 is a really great means to an end.