Maybe it's my age, but all those pop-dance-R&B tunes occupying the tracklisting of the latest Now compilation has got me wondering about the alternatives on sale offering far, far fewer tracks of the hybrid genres above. Artists such as Adele, Ellie Goulding, Noah & the Whale etc.

Can anyone suggest a compilation with a more laid-back, mature sound?

Well I thought the idea was that they would be fiulled up with chart topping records. If pop-dance-R&B tunes were mainly dominating the charts that's the sort of thing you can expect on the compilations.

There's no easy way around it I'm afrraid. Unless you get people to buy other types of record or you buy compilations of other chart music, like classical or country, etc.

Isn't there that "The Anthems" CD that comes out every year? Tends to include the more rock/indie side of the year, but obviously it's far less frequent so there's a lot of stuff missed.

It depends what kind of music you're into I suppose. If you really want to treat yourself to a bundle of assorted new music every few months you could try some of the iTunes Essentials packages, some of them are really good, and quite a bargain for how much you're getting.

P.S. You have awesome taste in music. Gold star for you.

You can get some easy listening albums released for Mother's/Father's Day, Valentine's Day and summer time etc; They usually contain less dancey music.

Summer is always packed with dance music.

I wasn't talking about Clubland or Ministry Of Sound though. They always have some American anthem albums out at that time.

Read about artists you love. Find out who they were inspired by. Go on iTunes and listen to the 30 second/90 second samples. Buy it if you like it. If you don't like it, forget it. You've wasted 6 minutes. Instead of ten quid.

Based on Adele, Ellie Goulding and Noah & The Whale?!

Yes! All opinion obviously, but I love all of them (and my Adele worship is well documented )

Also, it appears that all 3 artists you mentioned are on CD1 of Now 78...

Bruno Mars - Grenade
Adele - Rolling In The Deep
Jessie J - Do It Like A Dude
Rihanna - S&M
Ke$ha - We R Who We R
The Wanted - Gold Forever
Matt Cardle - When We Collide
Take That - The Flood
Ellie Goulding - Your Song
JLS feat. Tinie Tempah - Eyes Wide Shut
David Guetta feat. Rihanna - Who's That Chick?
Taio Cruz feat. Travie McCoy - Higher
Chris Brown - Yeah 3X
Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me
Alexis Jordan - Happiness
Parade - Louder
Olly Murs - Thinking Of Me
Avril Lavigne - What The Hell
McFly feat. Taio Cruz - Shine A Light
Noah And The Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.
Comic Relief pts. Susan Boyle & Geraldine McQueen - I Know Him So Well

Fair enough

if you have spotify I suggest trying out the excellent sharemyplaylists.com - do away with corporate compilations and listen to your own personal one

Somehow I doubt Ellie Goulding or Adele will feature on an American Anthem compilation CD.

Or Noah & The Whale (yep, they're English)

I didn't mean that. I meant you can get compilation albums with different themes. Like you can get Top Gear albums, love song albums, RnB albums, American anthem albums, power ballad albums............

Catch my drift?