My Favorite Disc (That I Haven’t Heard Yet)

With a deluge of new music hitting stores every week, it can be hard to keep up with the barrage of domestic new releases and reissues, not to mention the array of ridiculously priced imports floating around. Still, how did I miss the Now That’s What I Call Arabia series?

The existence of an 11th volume in the series blew my mind this morning, despite the fact that I haven’t really been a huge fan of the region’s music in the past. Are there Now series for the Philippines or Chile? These are the sort of things I need to know!

Anyhow, here are a few tracks from the forthcoming edition, which according to the press release features only massive hits “which have topped the charts and are played and requested massively on major Radios/TV’s in the region.” Again, how have I missed this compilation until today? “The content is always carefully chosen to feature the cream of the cream in Arabic music, and the best and biggest hits from the biggest Arabic superstars”, for Pete’s sake!

First up, “Ya Taxi” by Mishaal, which is “one of the biggest party tracks of 2008 so far, this is a very catchy track and is creating wave shocks and a CRAZE from Egypt to the Gulf subsequently creating a high demand as it is not available in the market!!!” I’m missing what’s causing the “CRAZE”, but then again, I am neither living in Egypt or the Gulf.

Next, Nancy Ajram with “Ana Yalli Behebbak”, which is “burning up the dancefloors”. This I can get behind a little more, especially since the video appears to have aired on a Arab version of the Video Jukebox.

Finally, although this volume also contains hits from Nawal El Zoughbi, Hisham Abbas, Somaya, Walid Toufic, Dina Hayek, Samo Zaen, Amr Mustafa and many more, we’ll finish the preview with the thumping dance sounds of Ruby, whose “Msheet Wara Hasesi” makes me feel a little dirty and befuddled at the same time. Like they say, “People cannot get enough of this track from Ruby.”

Now that is what I call Arabia [Al Bawaba]