Rocking For Charity
War Child’s covers album ‘Heroes’ has a distinct concept: 15 musical heroes chose one of their favourite songs from their back catalogue and selected a hero of the new musical generation to rework it. It’s an interesting idea, although you may miss out on this fact if you haven’t done your research and view it as a straight covers album. Either way there are some fun reworkings of some old classics, from Blondie’s ‘Call Me’ to Paul McCartney’s ‘Live and Let Die’ and some less well known gems like Roxy Music’s, ‘Do The Strand’.
As always with covers you get some pretty straight versions, and some more wacky and creative output, like Hot Chip’s ‘Transmission’, which features timpani and mellow electronica, it’s a very different and far more chilled track, Joy Division fans may accuse it of ruining the ambience of the track, but it’s seriously interesting. Duffy’s version of ‘Live and Let Die’ is a little unnecessary being that her thick and soulful vocals are rather an acquired taste, but it’s nicely done and easy to skip should it offend too much.
The Kooks make a good stab at ‘Victoria’ but mostly just keep the jaunty rock vibe, while Lily Allen’s version of The Clash’s ‘Straight To Hell’ is surprisingly charming, full of glowing harmonies, tambourine shivers and echoing vocals. It’s a pleasant surprise, but an odd one all the same. Beck funks up Bob Dylan’s ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’ while Scissor Scissors add their extravagant glammed-up style to Roxy Music’s ‘Do The Strand’, making fabulous use of their fabulous falsetto vocals.
The Hold Steady’s ‘Atlantic City’ is a rich and gorgeous offering, while true to the aching rock sentiment of the original. Peaches vamps up Iggy Pop’s ‘Search and Destroy’ is true Peaches’ style, while there’s more hot girl-fronted rock from Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a riproaring cover of, ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ but Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Call Me’ tops this all, and is striking not only in its advantageous position at the end of the album but also its fabulous energy, making it one of the most memorable tracks.
War Child have managed to pull together a stellar cast of acts who offer a great collection of tunes, they might not all be your personal heroes, but they all have something to offer.