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Dueling Charity Banjos

Ok, they’re not really dueling, and the charities don’t have banjos (though there should be banjo competitions for charity.  I would totally go.), but last week Red Hot, an AIDS relief charity released Dark Was the Night, a 31 track compilation featuring some of the brightest lights in indie rock.  This week, War Child released Heroes, a similar, albeit shorter, collection of indie-ish artists covering classic 70s and 80s rock songs.  Both causes are important.  Both CDs have some great songs.  But which is better?

Let’s start with Dark Was the Night.

Curated by the boys from The National, DWTN is like a recording at the royal court of indie rock.  The songs are all produced by masters of the well-placed string section or banjo, of the multi-layered, multi-textured sonic tapestries spun into songs.  It’s crucial to remember that the album was made for a charity for AIDS victims, because this informs the texture of the compilation.  Split into two discs, DWTN tells the story of the HIV positive patient, from discovery to dissolution.

The first disc is unbelievably dark, but it is not devoid of hope.  The opener, Knotty Pine, is fun, carefree even, but carries a touch of disaster to come.  It’s like the protagonist is enjoying life – maybe in overabundance.  Starting with the next track, The Books/Jose Gonzalez’s excellent cover of Nick Drake’s cello song, this changes.  They’ve been diagnosed.

Faced with death, many people try to right the history of uprooted lives they’ve left in their wake, to dedicate themselves to ensuring the ones they love are protected and loved.  This is always a struggle – an inner wrestle with yourself as you recognize the destruction you’ve caused, and the less difficult, but also challenging, struggle with the status quo.  But what’s important is that you try – and that striving informs most of the first disc.  In Ben Gibbard/Feist’s Train Song, the subject is caught on a train, rushing to meet a love that may have moved on.  The National’s So Far Around the Bend is about being stuck in banality, but trying to push out.  Yeasayer recognizes that you can’t solve all the problems by yourself – but you have to keep giving it your all.  And so it continues, with temporary victories (My Brightest Diamond’s cover of Feeling Good – which is the first time I’ve heard a song also performed by the Eels that actually rivals E’s take) and defeats (Grizzly Bear/Feist’s Service Bell).  And it concludes in the chaos of a sprawling 10 minute Sufjan Stevens track (which covers a Castanets song).  Throughout the first disc, the perspective shifts to the viewpoints of those around the afflicted, showing the indiscriminate destruction the disease can wreak on a community.

Luckily, the second disc doesn’t open up as tragically as the first one concludes.  Spoon romps.  Arcade Fire wants to save the world, and a soul.  Sharon Jones injects a bit of soul into the discussion.  The first 2/3 of the disc are about living life, about using the remaining time to celebrate.  A final hurrah, before smoothly settling in for the last ride, with Cat Power’s Amazing Grace guiding the way.  Love vs. Porn, despite the title, is an intriguing afterworld experience, Kevin Drew’s voice scraping hazily across the atmosphere like a eulogy whispered by the wind.

It’s a touching compilation, and there’s some real highlights.  Besides what’s listed above, the Gillian Welch/Conor Oberst duet on Lua, the Decemberists’ Sleepless, and Andrew Bird’s The Giant of Illinois are outstanding and worth the price alone.  But the compilation holds real value in the story it develops, and the disparate voices that tell it.

And War Child’s Heroes:

This is a CD of covers: classic 70s and 80s songs performed by modern artists.  This is a great risk: some of these songs are really well loved.  Joy Division’s Transmission.  The Clash’s Straight to Hell.  And, of course, the namesake, David Bowie’s Heroes.

I haven’t had as much time to absorb this disc (it only came out today).  First, the covers that absolutely destroyed the original song: Hot Chip’s version of Joy Divison Transmission.  How could such a darkly brooding, nervous song be turned into a boring ramble of blips?  Lily Allen’s take on Straight to Hell was interesting, but altogether flat, lacking the grit of the original.  And there were a slew of uninteresting tracks in the middle: Estelle, Scissor Sisters, even the Peaches track ring mediocre (until the end, when Peaches gets a little more interesting).

But the album’s not a total drag, as I’m probably making it sound.  The Beck opener is a return to classic funky Beck.  TV on the Radio cover Heroes like no one else can.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs were probably the best band around to cover Sheena was a Punk Rocker.  Same with Franz Ferdinand and Call Me.  Even Duffy’s version of Live and Let Die, while lacking the melodrama of, say, Axl, hints at it subtly, adding a complexity the song lacked before.  Finally, the Elbow cover of U2′s Running to Stand Still is a gentle, if slightly mournful version of the anthem that blossoms unexpectedly halfway through.  Remember, Bono: not every note needs to soar for effect:

Comparison

Something about this album bothered me from the first time I saw the track listing, and it wasn’t until this afternoon that I realized that the problem was threefold.  First, the emotional punch of DWTN is difficult to top.  If released a month ago, this wouldn’t have had the competition, and would have shown ever brighter.

Second, it is as British an album as DWTN is American (and Canadian).  Moreover, DWTN is a procession of North American indie royalty; Heroes holds a mirror to Britain’s mainstream sound.  While that makes it more inclusive, it erodes the cohesion of DWTN.  Put another way, Heroes is curated to appeal to the largest number of people and backgrounds, and so doesn’t go as far as it could; DWTN celebrates the scenes it promotes. Finally, despite the inclusion of a few non-British artists, this is very much a British album, and reflects the sonic quilt of modern Britain.  There are amazing similarities and crossovers between this and the American indie scene, but they do not perfectly align.  And that lessens the album’s impact just a tiny bit for the average American indie kid.

But really, you should pick up both.  There are enough good songs on each, and with the money going to charity, it’s definitely worth it.