Various Artists - Now, Vol. 18

The compilers of the popular and timely Now series have done a much better job with the 18th volume when compared to the 17th, since most of the songs here had major chart presence and fairly represent the artists. The series has been guilty more than once of bypassing artists' initial-impact hits in favor of inferior, out-of-character, less-popular follow-up singles, but this volume avoids that slip in most cases. Chingy's sleepwalking "Balla Baby" and a couple other suspect choices aside, the songs show the artists in top form, whether it's U2's "Vertigo," Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot," John Legend's "Used to Love U," Ashanti's "Only U," Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For?," or Keith Urban's sweet "You're My Better Half" -- the last one being a great relief after the alt-metal drama dips in the latter half of the program. Frickin' A's faithful (if synth-laden) punk-pop cover of Rick Springfield's "Jessie's Girl," likely to be heard in at least four teen movies by the end of 2006, is a wild card here, given the nod well before it had a chance to saturate airwaves from coast to coast. Perhaps an offshoot series titled Maybe in a Month or Two should be set up. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

Name Credits 7 Aurelius Audio Production, Producer Andrew Slater Audio Production, Producer Andy Wallace Mixing Beyoncé Knowles Producer Carl Glanville Audio Production Chevelle Producer Corey Rooney Producer, Audio Production Dann Huff Producer, Audio Production Eric Valentine Audio Production, Engineer, Producer, Mixing Gavin "Golden" Brown Producer, Audio Production Happy Perez Audio Production, Producer Howard Benson Producer, Audio Production Howard Willing Producer, Audio Production Irv Gotti Producer Jayson "Koko" Bridges Producer Jayson Bridges Audio Production John Legend Producer Julian Raymond Audio Production, Producer Kanye West Producer, Audio Production Keith Mack Producer Keith Urban Producer Lenny Kravitz Arranger, Producer Mark Liggett Audio Production, Producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette Producer Nellee Hooper Audio Production, Producer Peter Keusch Producer Rich Harrison Producer, Audio Production Steve Lillywhite Audio Production, Producer The Neptunes Audio Production, Producer The Underdogs Producer Youth Producer