War Child: Heroes

[Skummy]

So, there's another new War Child covers compilation out. All for a good cause and that.

Listening to it now. So far; Beck's "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" is pretty good...what you'd expect Beck covering Dylan to sound like, I suppose. Folktronicatastic.

Scissor Sisters' "Do The Strand" I can really see growing on me. Definitely going to end up in my DJ collection at some point.

Lilly Allen and Mick Jones doing "Straight To Hell" is bloody brilliant, I'm loving it.

Duffy's "Live And Let Die"...hmm. Not sure yet. Maybe because it's one of the few songs I think Guns & Roses did a good job of covering pretty definitively, and I don't think the more downbeat arrangement of Duffy's version does the song justice quite as much.

I've no idea what the original of "Running To Stand Still" sounds like, and I don't really like Elbow anyway, but the opening riff of this is pretty fantastic, until the piano comes in and it starts to sound...well, like Elbow.

I'm not sure what I think of TV On The Radio's "Heroes" yet. Weird electronic noise throughout gets on my nerves, but there's a pretty meaty riff buried in there. Scuzzy feedback. Nice. Don't like the dancier aspects of it, though. Maybe a grower, though.

Hot Chip's version of "Transmission" has horrible vocoder effects, and sounds horribly flat and devoid of emotion compared to the original. I don't really know what they've tried to do...sounds like they've tried to turn it into a more poppy dance number, but there's just no power to it.

The Kooks version of "Victoria" is pointless.

Estelle's singing on "Superstition" hurts my ears. The music's alright, but lacklustre compared to the original, or even to the Chili Peppers version. Again, pointless.

Rufus Wainwright's medley of songs from "SMiLE" is exactly as good as it sounds like it should be.

Peaches "Search And Destroy" is another one that just feels flat. It sounds like a match in heaven, but it doesn't seem to build to anything, the volume's too flat, never reaches a crescendo or any kind of satisfying climax - nothing like the raw power (pun not intended) of the original.

I've no idea who The Hold Steady are, but I think maybe someone should hunt them down and hurt them for turning one of Springsteen's finest moments, "Atlantic City", into a Snow Patrol soundalike bit of radio rock tripe. And jesus fuck, there's a saxophone solo. The one thing that made Nebraska such a good album in the first place was the complete lack of that kind of extraneous shite. Fuck, there it is again. BIG ARENA ROCK "INDIE" DRUMS. Main stage at Reading. GUITAR SOLO. Not happy about this one. Good drunken singalong, maybe, at best.

Who in God's name are The Like? Hmm. Generic smokey female rock vocals. Oh, they're doing "You Belong To Me" by Elvis Costello. Nothing remarkable.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, sigh. Karen O is my true love. That said, them doing "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" sounded much more promising than this. As bad as most of the tripe on the "We're A Happy Family" wankfest excuse for a Ramones tribute album. Oh wait, nice minimalist breakdown, lovely. That improves this massively. Still not as good as it could've been, all things considered.

Fucking hell, Franz Ferdinand's "Call Me" has a nice little Black Sabbath riff to begin with. Wasn't expecting that. The rest of it is disappointing, though. Sounds like....well, like Franz Ferdinand playing "Call Me".

All in all, this is pretty good. I don't think any of it will become staple parts of my listening or DJing the way Muse's "House Of The Rising Sun" or Prodigy's "Ghost Town" have done from previous WarChild albums, and there's the expected amount of shite on here, but as a whole it's not a bad little album...

[METALMAN]

I heard "Call Me" by Franz on the radio the other day. I'd agree that it was nothing special but I enjoyed listening to it nonetheless.

Covers of "Heroes" and "Transmission" sound interesting but I'm not a big fan of TV On The Radio or Hot Chip. Rufus Wainwright doing songs from SMiLE does sound very interesting.

I quite like The Hold Steady. Well I like the album I have of theirs from 2005 at least. It would be a shame if they actually have become like Snow Patrol since then.

I might look out for it.

EDIT: Listening to 30 second samples from itunes right now. Hardly a good way to judge a full album but I can't afford it and I'm not going to pirate a charity album. I have some standards. >_>

Bob Dylan cover sounds pretty good.

I like "Do The Strand". Not sure about this version though. It's okay I suppose.

Straight To Hell sounds decent. Does Mick Jones actually sing in it?

Live and Let Die sounds awful. Oh wait the "reggae" bit is actually alright.

Elbow...nah

I like Heroes by TVOTR. And I don't actually like them all that much.

Transmission is better than I expected. I'd agree it isn't very good though.

Kooks doing Kinks...not dreadful. Not very exciting either.

Vocal backing thing on Superstition is irritating. I might like it but for that.

Rufus Wainwright makes Wonderful sound like his own. I like.

Search & Destroy sounds alright. Nothing special but I would happily listen to it.

Atlantic City is my favourite Bruce Springsteen song from my favourite Bruce Springsteen album. I like this cover actually. When it kicks in.

I don't like Elvis Costello. Or this cover.

Don't like YYY's cover.

I love Call Me. This is probably my favourite song on the album actually.

FURTHER EDIT:

"Nothing Compares 2 U" (originally by The Family) - Stereophonics

Found that on one of the other War Child albums. I need to hear this! hehe...

Prodigy doing Ghost Town sounds fun.

Blur — "Eine Kleine Lift Musik" - I think I also want to hear this.

YET ANOTHER EDIT:

Does anyone remember that charity John Lennon album? That was funny shit. U2 doing Instant Karma was surprisingly alright but you also had Avril Lavigne doing Imagine, Green Day ruining Working Class Hero and Duran Duran shitting all over Instant Karma.

Tokio Hotel also ruined Instant Karma. Who are Tokio Hotel?

And #9 Dream already sounds like REM. It's not like they needed to do much adaptation. And they didn'tt. haha

Edited February 23, 2009 by metalman

[YI]

The Hold Steady are a band I should really like more, as I love shit like that (the old "heartland rock revival machine" bollocks), but for whatever reason I just can't get into them. But come on, saxophone solo, epic! Need to give this a listen, as I'm proper bumming Springsteen covers at the minute. Jeniferever's "One Step Up" is probably my favourite cover ever, and Paul Baribeau's Springsteen cover album is awesome in a "one man, a beard, an acoustic guitar, and a fat bird singing backing vocals" way.

And ewwww, Estelle doing "Superstition" does not sound appealing to me at all.

Will get hold of this later.