Sunday, February 15th, 2009

Suede covers Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Photo via amazon.co.ukamazon.co.ukThis week will see the release of the third benefit CD for the War Child organization, dedicated to providing aid to children in regions affected by conflict and poverty. This latest one, entitled War Child: Heroes, consists entirely of covers with the musical legends such as Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson and David Bowie choosing one of their songs and an artist to cover it. The resulting collection of talent involved is breathtaking.

Covers and heroes weren’t an official theme of the original Help! album, released in 1995 to benefit those in war-torn Sarajevo, but it was a running theme. One of the contributions came from Suede, who crafted an elegant version of Elvis Costello’s Falklands anti-war song, originally written for Robert Wyatt, formerly of The Soft Machine, but which he also recorded himself for 1983’s Punch The Clock.

War Child: Heroes is out tomorrow in the UK and next Tuesday in the US and not till March 3 in Canada. The North American and European versions differ slightly – besides a different running order, North America gets Adam Cohen covering dad Leonard’s “Take This Waltz” while those on the other side of the Atlantic do not. A curious decision, since I doubt anyone really cares about Adam Cohen’s presence one way or the other, anywhere.

You can currently stream the whole of the album – sans Cohens – at MySpace. And if you’re feeling the charitable compilation thing right now, remember that the Dark Was The Night AIDS benefit is also out this week, and it’s pretty damned stunning – pretty much everyone in the all-star lineup is at the top of their game.

MP3: Suede – “Shipbuilding”
Video: Suede – “Shipbuilding”
Video: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Shipbuilding” (live)
Video: Robert Wyatt – “Shipbuilding” (live)
Stream: War Child: Heroes

By : Frank Yang at 10:15 am
Category: Chromewaves Radio

Tags: ,

RSS Feed for this post3 Responses.

  1. 2/15/09 4:14 pm

     8/1 says:

    Suede is the best in the world

  2. 2/15/09 11:43 pm

     thomaus says:

    The producers of Dark Was The Night — Bryce and Aaron Dressner of The National — are on XMU (Sirius or XM) previewing the album Monday at 5 pm Eastern. It repeats at 10 pm and more times. Luckily I think I’ll be in the car to hear them.

  3. 2/16/09 10:43 am

     ricky says:

    suede is the best, agreed with 8/1

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