Moving on with a selection of songs from some of the greatest female voices of the decade – including Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Chaka Khan, Irene Cara and Olivia Newton-John. NOW 80s Alternative is available as an 80-track 4CD set or as a 30-song 2LP pink coloured vinyl offering and even though these kinds of compilations are fairly common these days, this one looks pretty good!

The epic ‘This Corrosion’ from Sisters Of Mercy starts CD3 in grandiose style – and is followed with atmospheric masterpieces from Siouxsie And The Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure and a second appearance from Joy Division – before some late-80s Alternative essentials, including Bjork’s band The Sugarcubes, Act, The Mission, All About Eve, The Cult’s ‘Edie (Ciao Baby)’, ‘This Is England’ from The Clash, and The Fall’s version of ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’, before closing with two more great examples of U. S. New Wave smash with ‘Whip It’, and fantastic unique hits from Scarlet Fantastic, Split Enz, Our Daughter’s Wedding, Anne Pigalle and ‘Flowers’ by Zaine Griff (featuring Kate Bush on backing vocals) are all included. Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U. NOW – 80s Alternative – A celebration of a different view of the decade’s charts – the lesser-compiled 1980’s singles. By the late 80s, club culture informed and popularised a huge number of new styles of dance music including House, Eurodance, Jack-Swing, Techno, and an evolution in Soul… the final disc highlights some of the best from the end of the decade.K. was dancing to the Brit-Funk of Linx with ‘You’re Lying’ and the relaxed Dub explorations of UB40, with two of their early 12”s included. High Tempo Dance and Hi-NRG found mainstream success in the mid-80s with floor-fillers from Evelyn Thomas, Miquel Brown, Man 2 Man, Boys Town Gang and Patrick Cowley feat.

The disc closes with Culture Club’s US remix of ‘I’ll Tumble 4 Ya’, and the classic pop of ‘The Heat Is On’, the debut solo hit in the UK for Agnetha Fältskog.The superb synth-pop of ‘Love Kills’ from Freddie Mercury opens the album, followed by the special dance mix of Eurythmics’ ‘There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)’. The 12” single was a dynamic and increasingly essential part of the release schedule as the decade progressed. Talking of NOWs, the beach-towel-tastic NOW 15 compilation, originally issued in 1989 was also recently announced. Disc Two pays tribute to the 80s dancefloor classics that fused genres to create breath-taking originality and new styles - often reflecting changes in new technology and capturing the fashion of the era.