Music

War Child: Heroes
War Child is an admirable enterprise (producing compilation albums of original music by well-known artists for charity) and their much-publicised latest effort, Heroes, sounds right up my street -- I love covers and this is billed as "The Ultimate Covers Album". It's certainly a fantastic concept: renowned artists choose their favourite track and a modern act they'd like to cover it.

Sadly, its execution is lacking. There are some combinations that come out as the concept would imply -- Paul McCartney's Live and Let Die covered by Duffy, Blondie's Call Me covered by Franz Ferdinand, Stevie Wonder's Superstition covered by Estelle -- and all the "original legends", as the booklet bills them, are suitably well-known. But their song choices often aren't, and neither are some of "today's biggest acts" -- again, the booklet's words -- who are covering them. So we have the likes of Lily Allen, Scissor Sisters and the Kooks rubbing shoulders with Peaches, the Hold Steady and the Like -- acts that just provoke a collective, "who?"

Maybe some of the covered songs are more recognisable when heard than from their titles, and I suppose no one said they had to be famous songs chosen... but, to me, the very idea of an "Ultimate Covers Album" with such a setup implies songs and artists you know.

On the other hand, most of it does sound good -- I mean, you can't complain at that. The recognisable songs are largely among the best bits, though Duffy's Live and Let Die is risibly dull, choosing to abandon the original's defining hard-soft juxtaposition in favour of just the soft. Fortunately it's a rare misstep on this otherwise entertaining CD.