Album Review

While Now, Vol. 34 featured four songs that had reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, the 35th volume contains one: Katy Perry's “California Gurls.” The Now compilers can’t be faulted for the shortage of number ones here, however, not when Ke$ha's “TiK ToK” (Now, Vol. 33), Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” (Now, Vol. 34), and “California Gurls” hogged the spot for a combined 20 weeks. Regardless, this is one of the more “now” volumes of the series; when the disc was released, only one of its 16 songs wasn’t in the Hot 100, while four were in the Top 20. The “Now What’s Next” portion of the disc -- the series used to feature nothing but chart hits, but is now 20% promotion of new artists, each of whom gets a full-page profile in the booklet -- features Jennette McCurdy, Days Difference, Sky Ferreira, and Tiffany Dunn. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi