Ya Heard? War Child Heroes

This week it's the all-covers edition courtesy of the recently released benefit compilation, War Child - Heroes Vol. 1. A little back story. The record supports War Child, a non-governmental organization aimed at helping children affected by war around the globe. This release follows a 2005 compilation, Help!: A Day in the Life from War Child UK, which itself was a tenth-anniversary celebration of War Child's original The Help Album, a 1995 charity compilation featuring Oasis, Radiohead, Sinead O'Connor, and Blur among others. Heroes differs from previous War Child releases with its mix of American and British artists. Other War Child discs were comprised exclusively of acts from across the pond. Heroes is also unique to the War Child musical legacy as it features only cover songs of past generations performed by artists of today. It's an eclectic and surprisingly cohesive record considering how cover songs generally don't do their original counterparts any favors. Heroes gleefully destroys this convention. Here are the highlights.

Sheena Is a Punk Rocker / Yeah Yeah Yeahs (covering The Ramones)

Modern-day New York art-punk takes on old-school NY punk legends, nailing the original's energy and spirit. Karen O matches Joey Ramone's sneer and sass while the other two Yeahs - drummer Brian Chase and guitarist Nick Zinner - remain loyal to the Ramone's garage noise aesthetic. It honors the original while sounding contemporary. Not an easy feat for any cover song.

Heroes / TV on the Radio (covering David Bowie)

It's been widely reported that Bowie hand-picked TVOTR to cover his 1977 masterpiece. Not surprising considering Ziggy himself sang backup on TVOTR's "Province" off the band's Return to Cookie Mountain and is admittedly a huge fan of the band. Kyp Malone handles vocal duty on the '09 version of Heroes, sounding like Bowie's vocal doppelganger, while guitarist David Sitek's production is right in line with the band's recent stellar Dear Science - the Mixtape's 2008 album of the year. The marriage of Malone's soulful vocal with the sonic storm of ice-cold drum machine and synths defiantly avoids the anthemic nature of the original, though hearing Malone singing, "I will be king and you, you will be queen" is goose bump-inducing sincerity that Bowie must be proud of.

Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat / Beck (covering Bob Dylan)

Beck is arguably this generation's premiere genre-defying troubadour so it makes sense that his song of choice is from the stylistic blueprint that has served his career well. Beck speeds up Dylan's bluesy original with fuzzed-out guitars and an immediacy that updates the track nicely. Hell, this could be released as a single and do quite well.

Transmission / Hot Chip (covering Joy Division)

In another inspired casting, Hot Chip stretches their own boundaries a bit while retaining the icy-cold aesthete of Joy Division that has influenced many modern bands - Interpol and The Bravery among them. Alexis Taylor's vocals are a bit more round than Ian Curtis', but the music is similarly glacial to the original, which is the same contrast that makes so much of Hot Chip's own music work so well.

Running to Stand Still / Elbow (covering U2)

Again, rumor has it that Bono and the boys selected Elbow to cover one of the few songs on The Joshua Tree that wasn't released as a single. Guy Garvey's vocals are understated and warm, much like the majority of his Elbow output. This serves the track well considering Bono's original vocal delivery, as well as the song itself, is more quiet storm than the bombastic, cheap seat reaching arena howl that has become an endearing feature of U2's work. At times ethereal; at times swelling, Elbow practice the same musical restraint, their sonics threatening to color outside the lines ever so briefly before pulling back to match the subtle intensity of the original.

Atlantic City / The Hold Steady (covering Bruce Springsteen)

The only other band that I could see The Hold Steady covering is Thin Lizzy. Craig Finn and company have made a critically-lauded career out of telling stories replete with debauchery and dysfunctional characters that spend their days searching for the bottom of the bottle, all the while sounding like musical brethren of the Phil Lynott's band of Irish rockers.

The first minute of THS' "Atlantic City" evokes, surprise, the Boss himself standing on a stage in front of 50,ooo, quietly speak-singing another tale of darkness on the edge of town. What follows is an approximation of "Atlantic City" if the original featured the E Street Band in full force, not the spare arrangement featured on Springsteen's 1982 home-demo release of Nebraska. That's to say, THS roll right into a sax and guitar-driven reimagining of the track that at once sounds like a Jersey rave up and The Hold Steady's own woeful tales of miscreants.

When Finn sings, "Everything dies, baby, that's a fact, but maybe everything that dies some day comes back," it serves as War Child Heroes' thematic mantra. These songs haven't necessarily died, but more often than not, are reborn as today's musical heroes elevate the originals and remind this generation of the timeless influences that inform modern-day rock.