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List Price: $21.49 | | Label: 101 DISTRIBUTION
Salesrank: 66920
Released: February 17, 2009 |
| Our Price: $8.92 |
| Used Price: $5.49 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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War Child - Heroes Vol.1 Track Listing:
1. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat - Beck
2. Do The Strand - Scissor Sisters
3. Straight To Hell - Lily Allen Featuring Mick Jones
4. Live And Let Die - Duffy
5. Running To Stand Still - Elbow
6. Heroes - TV On The Radio
7. Transmission - Hot Chip
8. Victoria - The Kooks
9. Superstition - Estelle
10. Wonderful/Song For Children - Rufus Wainwright
11. Search And Destroy - Peaches
12. Atlantic City - The Hold Steady
13. You Belong To Me - The Like
14. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
15. Call Me - Franz Ferdinand
Editorial Review:
War Child is a unique charity. It is the only child protection agency operating in south Iraq, the only agency to have separated children from adults in Afghanistan prisons and the only international organisation working with ex-child soldiers in northern Democratic Republic of Congo. War Child is only able to work in these locations through a unique combination of security management and private funding. War Child - Heroes vol 1 is a product of War Child working with the ultimate living legends of modern music and asking them to select their personal favourite track from all those they have recorded and then nominate the current recording artist they would most trust to record a new version of that track.
War Child - Heroes Vol.1 Reviews:
Solid Recording 
2009-06-11 - Love the idea behind this album, if you're interested I'd recommend also looking at the warchild website. Back to the cd tho, Beck's version of Dylan's song is what originally captured my attention when it was played during the Oscar's credits. The rest of the album is very good, but that song is by far my favorite. Not a bad addition to any collection, and you'd be supporting a good cause, so win-win.
disappointing 
2009-05-09 - Besides the Springsteen cover by the Hold Steady and the song by Beck, I found the rest of this CD totally forgettable.
Heroes... Alright! 
2009-04-12 - Just looking at the artists - both original and cover - I knew I would love this album. I do. I absolutely love it. A couple tracks aren't my favorite, though the great far out weigh the ok. Tracks by TV on the Radio, Franz Ferdinand, Lily Allen, Duffy, and Beck.... GREAT! Recommended.
mediocre effort 
2009-03-26 - other than a handful of songs, this is not worth buying. select the good songs and just get those.
All for a noble cause!!
2009-03-25 - "War Child presents Heroes" is the third in the series of compilations to raise money for children affected by war around the world. Prior to this release, the only other one I'd owned was 2005's "Help - a day in the life" featuring acts such as Radiohead, Keane, Coldplay and Bloc Party to mention a few.
This new collection comes with a twist. Where "Help.." comprised mostly new recordings from the artistes involved, here we get covers of songs selected by the original performers. This is the only minus, as one gets to compare the covers with the originals (where you are familiar with them). For example, Franz Ferdinand's live cover of Blondie's "Call me" is practically identical to the original, right down to the deadpan vocals of Debbie Harry. Well, the song is great so that is really no loss.
Estelle sounds a wee bit like Lauryn Hill as she blasts through Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" but with those funky horns replaced with scatting and ad libs. Duffy does a stripped, Bluey-y cover of Paul McCartney's "Live and let die", the Hold Steady transform Bruce Springsteen's acoustic ballad "Atlantic City" into an upbeat Rocker, yet still manage to sound just like the Boss himself.
Rufus Wainwright does what he does well, a theatrical almost Cabaret delivery of "Wonderful/Song For Children", a Medley from Brian Wilson's Smile, one of my favourites. Elbow turn in a Coldplay-style delivery of U2's "Running to stand still", initially calm and building to a stadium-sized climax. David Bowie's "Heroes" is given an upbeat, stomping treatment by TV on the radio with lead singer Tunde Adebimpe turning in an echoing Bowie vocal impression.
The other songs are all new to me; a fuzzy/distorted cover of Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" by Beck, a rolicking cover of The Kinks' "Victoria" by The Kooks, a synth driven/ghostly cover of Joy Division's "Transmission" by Hot Chip, Lily Allen and Mick Jones doing a gentle cover of The Clash's "Straight to hell" (and it sounds like it could be right off her "Alright, still" CD), and a blazing and frenetic cover of The Ramones "Sheena is a punk rocker" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
An AWOL Scissor Sisters do what they did for Pink Floyd's "Comfortably numb" to Roxy Music's "Do the strand", Peaches covers "Search and destroy" by Iggy Pop, Adam Cohen does an impassioned live Spanish acoustic/piano cover of dad Leonard Cohen's "Take this waltz", and The Like do a rocky, reverb-filled cover of Elvis Costello's "You belong to me".
Nice music, and all for a noble cause.
