War Child - Heroes

The War Child Heroes album is no ordinary compilation album. Rather than a series of casts off and B sides that form the usual charity CD, War Child take a highly prescriptive approach in the formation of their releases. This approach leads to a much greater focus on the quality of the music. The concept for Heroes combines some of the greatest icons of rock music with some of the most popular contemporary artists of today. The charity asked fifteen rock greats, from U2 to Bowie to Iggy Pop to choose a song from their back catalogue and to nominate a modern act that they would most trust to create a unique interpretation of that song. The end results of these new cover versions are such that irrespective of the charitable status of the project, the album is worth buying for a significant amount of musical merit alone.

Most surprising is how some of the covers that you would expect on paper to be disasters are very good indeed. Take Duffy covering Live And Let Die; whilst at Breaking More Waves we were fans of the Duffy album, the recent screeching on previous single Rain On Your Parade left a sour taste in our mouth. Here Duffy redeems herself with Bernard Butler on production duties and his long time collaborator David McAlmont providing sweet soulful backing vocals. Her version is restrained and sultry, a torch song version of the classic.

Lily Allen also shocks with a very modern middle of the road pop version of Straight To Hell by The Clash, with Mick Jones on backing vocals. It should be a disaster, but Lily gives Joe Strummers difficult anti war lyrics a delicate sugary touch that actually makes them stand out more.

Elbow fare even better, taking Running To Stand Still by U2 and making it sound even more tender and intimate than the original. It’s worth buying the album for this song alone. Bono chose wisely. Elsewhere TV On The Radio deliver a bold mountainous electronic beat laden version of Heroes that follows neatly on from the Dear Science album whilst The Hold Steady, who let’s face it sound like a Bruce Springsteen covers band, get to cover The Boss on Atlantic City.

There are very few duffers on the album. Hot Chips minimal electro calypso of Transmission will probably be hated by most Ian Curtis fans, but one track out of fifteen isn’t bad.

It would seem almost a disservice to review a charity album and give it the thumbs down. Fortunately in the case of War Child Heroes there is no need to do such a thing. Rather than going out this Friday night and spending your spare cash on a round of drinks, buy this album, stay in, listen to it and know that you have helped provide vital funds for War Childs essential and unique work in helping children who live with the brutal effects of war.

Album Of The Year 2008 #2 - Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Mercury Music Prize. There. Said it. Again. Now let’s move on.

The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow is one of the most elegant and masterful albums produced this year. If ever record companies want proof of the value of sticking with a band and not dropping them after one album fails to make the grade commercially, Elbow are that proof. Whilst every album they have created has had its moments, this, their fourth represents a band at its peak.

Guy Garvey and his cohorts have created a rich tapestry of often sombre sounding but beautiful songs which bubble with emotion. “The violets explode inside me when I meet your eyes. Then I’m spinning and I’m diving like a cloud of starlings. Darling is this love?” he sings on opening track Starlings. These lyrics are thoughtful, expressive and read as well as they are sung. Garvey’s often wry and poetic take on the world and his ability to make the personal seem so wondrous is the skill that makes him one of the country’s best contemporary songwriters.

The Seldom Seen Kid simply oozes quality. From the bluesy crunching Grounds For Divorce, to the incredibly gentle and delicate Weather To Fly, a song so criminally good it needs arresting. Then of course there is One Day Like This, which demonstrates that Elbow also know how to produce an anthem that will appeal to the masses. A string laden song which united a cast of thousands at festivals across the UK this summer with its repeated mantra of “So throw those curtains wide. One day like this a year would see me right.” It will make you well up inside, grab hold of whoever is next to you and tell them that you love them. You might even make babies to it.

The Seldom Seen Kid is one of the most life affirming and important albums released this year, that continues to improve with every listen as we march into 2009. It was almost Breaking More Waves number 1, but that is left to the ultimate ‘grower’ of the year.....

Here’s One Day Like This at Glastonbury. Watch this right to the end and be moved. If you are not, check your pulse. You must be dead.

Elbow @ Portsmouth Guildhall

For the next year it will be almost impossible to read or write anything about Elbow without the opening text starting along the lines of ‘Mercury music prize winners Elbow.....’. Even Guy Garvey, the bands lead singer cannot help but mention it on stage at Portsmouth Guildhall “We’ve had an exciting year.... We know that most of the tickets sold out before we won the Mercury prize, but it’s always nice to see new friends too,” he jokes. Watching the band perform tonight it seems that for once the Mercury Award doesn’t seem like a noose around the winners neck. This is a band who have been creatively surfing a wave for a very long time now. They are unusual recipients in so far as they were already far advanced on their musical journey, having on the fourth attempt delivered their best and most consistent work to date. The Mercury is renowned for being given to a debut album. The award for The Seldom Seen Kid has been seen by many as being well and truly deserved, not only for its life affirming songs, but for the bands unerring perseverance and dedication to producing quality music. It is that dedication that has paid the dividends and allows the band to expand and continue, with a body of work behind them that frees them from the mental shackles of worrying about how they produce a follow up.

It also says volumes that for a band that were once dropped by their record label that tonight they are playing Portsmouth Guildhall, the towns largest venue, a step up from the last time they were here at the smaller Pyramids centre. There is a feeling here tonight of celebration. As the band walk on stage the applause seems to go on for ever, before they have even played a note. Elbow have finally made it, and it couldn’t happen to a nicer and better band.

Guy Garvey is the most un rock n roll of front men with his un-tucked white shirt and lack of slenderness. He looks like he has just strolled out of the office and somehow found his way onto the stage of the Guildhall. However his voice, reminiscent of Peter Gabriel, gravel like and comfortingly warm is perfect, as is the rest of the sound that his band make.

The set is full of songs from the new album, from the opening tenderness of Starlings, where the band punch out a wake up call of singular trumpet blasts as bright white light obliterates the stage, to the string laden anthemic One Day Like This with its euphoric chorus of "Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year would see me right." There is also a collective shudder of appreciation through the audience as Garvey takes a seat and a guitar to play Newborn from the bands first an album Asleep In The Back, a song full of musical diversions and complexity that builds to a crescendo before cutting out to a dark nothingness. It is near perfection and shows a band operating at the highest level.

Live at Portsmouth Guildhall Elbow’s music is powerful and full of emotion, yet despite the size of the venue the band retain a sense of intimacy. Any criticism that they are just too serious musically is deflated by Garvey’s in between song banter, which has developed since becoming a BBC 6 Music DJ ,where he asks if he can refer to the audience as Joe, which he does. But best of all he asks the crowd to abandon the normal clapping for an encore if they want the band back, and instead to sing I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside, which the crowd duly oblige him.

This gig is best summed up when Garvey asks the crowd “What day is it?”. The response from an audience member ? “Elbow Day.” At this rate we may yet go on to rename all of the days of the week in their honour.