Alternative Rock Compilations music reviews

This is definitely chilled music, very relaxing and catchy tunes, it almost makes me think it's quiet and cool like a winter night. Very nicely done as usual for HK!!

Sweet forlorn female vocals with fresh lyrics in wondrous arrangements...."Blame it on the Moon" and all that surrounds it keeps me coming back for more. A rare case where the CD 2 might be the better one. Everyone asks me to play this one again.

VERY different from other Hed Kandi type albums - winter chill provides an eclectic mix of downbeat but involved songs. Some are very new (Sugababes 'stronger'), while others have been around for nearly a decade (Mazzy Star 'flowers in December') - but all strong tracks that together make a great soundtrack for what (I think) would be a fabulous movie. Best surprise track for fans of "Six Feet Under" is on disc 1 Sia, "Breathe Me" this was the song played in the very end of the last episode - it's a cryer.

Other highlights, Goldfrap, Lamb, Frou Frou, Eventide, and Snow Patrol - chances are if you love one of those artists, you'll like, or love, the others too.

Not so great - the instrumentals (disc 1; tracks 8, 9 - which are... well boring).

I reccomend this album to those who loved the Garden State soundtrack - but I would go so far as to say this is better... yes better.

Lots to keep it interesting and something for everyone. A unique Christmas bash. Artists are: The Idea ; Chris Stamey & the dB's ; Brave Combo ; Andrea Perry ; Klark Kent ; Ed Haynes ; NRBQ ; Big Fish Ensemble ; Rocky Zharp ; Rick Paul ; Glowfriends ; Marina Belica ; astroPuppees ; 5 Chinese Brothers ; Mike Daly (of Whiskeytown) ; Jim Babjak's Buzzed Mug (of Smithereens) ; The Butties ; Flat Duo Jets ; Sonny Columbus & The Del Fuegos ; Wednesday Week ; Bite the Wax Godhead ; Graham Parker & Nona Hendryx ; Negatones ; Helen Avakian ; Sandi Kay ; Michaelangelo D'Amico ; Better Than Ezra ; The Whereabouts ; Keith LuBrant ; Pam DeCosmo ; King Virtue ; Leanne Weiss ; The Hungry Dutchmen ; Christopher Grey ; Red Dirt Rangers ; Empire State Human ; Abney Park ; Five Iron Frenzy ; Kelsey Jean ; Boss Gremlin ; The dB's ; The Alice Project ; The Reducers ; The Chinkees ; Bleach ; Scrap Daddy ; Pork Chop ; Kise ; The Cucumbers

Oh and I'm not a kid by the way.

Anyway, I first heard of the album in the radio and got to hear the track "Heard it through the grapevine" from The Kaiser Chiefs. Then I didn't hear much of it (as I'm living in Germany) but I kept it in mind. But when I remembered it I didn't wait long and put it on my christmas wishlist. To tell the truth , I didn't even really look at the artists or the songs. All I knew was that the Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, Bloc Party and Hard-Fi had tracks on the album.

So when I did get "Help-a day in the life" for the First Advent I was rather surprised to actually find non-brit pop tracks, such as Emmanual Jal or even the Gorrilaz. No ofence but upon listing to the album for the first time I didn'T love it. But after listing to it for a couple of times it really appealed to me. Altough I'm not such a big fan of some of the music I actually really liked the tracks!

Overall I can only recommend "Help-A day in the life". It's not your average "Various" Album because of the great artists. Only thing I don't like about the album is "Happy Christmas, War is over" from ??? ( I can't think of their name just now). I'd like to listen to the album without always having to think of Christmas. But still worth the buy!

I have never been a big fan of the compilation album genre, be it movie soundtracks, charity albums (such as this album) or whatever multiple artist compilation. But when I saw this album on a recent trip to London, I couldn't resist, and for once, I am happy to say that this album is worth every nickel.

"Help: A Day in the Life" (20 tracks, 78 min.) is the sequel to the 1995 charity compilation album "Help: War Child". The line-up of artists contributing to this album (with every single track recorded in a 24 hr. span of September 8-9, 2005) is just outstanding. Among the many, many highlights: Coldplay's "How You See the World, Pt.2" (which, contrary to the Amazon editor's review, is NOT the bonus track of the Japanese version of "X&Y"--that track, "The World Turned Upside Down", can be found on the "Fix Me" single); Radiohead's down-trotten "I Want None of This", Keane's charming cover of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", The Magic Numbers' "Gone Are the Days", The Coral's little gem "It Was Nothing", and towards the end of the album, the 1-2-3 punch of Bloc Party's "The Present", Hard-Fi's "Help Me Please" and Babyshambles' "From Bollywood to Battersea" (giving a glimpse of how good Pete Doherty can actually be, if only he could stay away from drugs long enough). But the outstanding track on the album is the Kaiser Chiefs' cover of "I Heard It Throught the Grapevine", with a riveting guitar lick throughout.

There is really no weak track on here, as hard as that is to believe. Even the non-rock tracks such as Tinariwen's "Cler Achel" and Emmanuel Jal's "Gua" don't sound out of place. "Help: A Day in the Life" is an outstanding album, frankly one of the better CDs of 2005. And that the proceeds help a good cause, only makes this so much easier to recommend.

Recorded (and retailed) in a 24 hour period by every act involved to raise money for children from war torn regions, this is the fastest recording ever. Amazingly, the quality of the music is superb!!! This is probably due to the stellar line up that includes Radiohead, Keane, Coldplay, The Magic Numbers, The Coral, Bloc Party, Elbow to name a few; loads of my favourite acts.

The ultimate piano rock group, Keane (with alien effects from Faultline), handle a ballad by the ultimate piano rocker, Elton John. `Goodbye yellow brick road' fits choir boy voice of Tom Chaplin to a `T'. It doesn't stray too far from the original.

`I heard it through the grapevine' by Kaiser Chiefs is another story; a rollicking fun reworking of the Marvin Gaye classic which works superbly.

Radiohead provide a dirge like ballad, the brief `I want none of this'. Coldplay perform `How you see the world no.2' and make the song their own, there's the eastern guitar drenched `Hong kong' from Gorillaz, and the summery harmony laden 'Gone are the days by The Magic Numbers.

Most touching story from the line up is that of 25 year old Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier from Sudan who performs the hip hop laced `Gua' (which means peace in Nuer) which surprisingly fits in rather well. He raps in his native Nuer tongue, as well as in English and Arabic, with a lovely children's backing choir (and he also wrote the CD liner notes). With lyrics hoping for an end one day to an to conflict, fear (especially in children) and for peace, this just about sums up this entire brilliant CD.

I've been waiting for this collection to be released for a while now. The easiest way to review it is just to do a track by track breakdown of the good songs. I'll pass on the ones I didn't like and let someone else savage them!

1. "Ana Ng" by Self. On first listen this sounded somewhat close to the original, mainly because of the vocals. HOWEVER, this is now my favorite track and is far better than the original. It's done with tons of guitars and layering, and sounds like Self (duh) and a little like some of Brendan Benson's more rockin' stuff. Grade: A+

2. "Pet Name" by The Long Winters. I love the Long Winters, but this track is not as good or polished as their albums/eps. The vocals sound kinda sloppy and off. But it's also much better than the original TMBG track, which I always found annoying. This sounds like some drunken garage-rock REM or Replacements b-side (in a good way). Grade: B

3. "Narrow Your Eyes" by David Miller. Very cool 60's sound on this one--made me think of classic power pop stuff (Who, Raspbberries, mid-Kinks). I've never even heard the original but this is neat, thanks to great guitars and handclappy choruses. Grade: A

4. "She's An Angel" by Charles Douglas. This one's also a really great track that I like more than the original one. Sounds like the Pixies or Lou Reed, and has Pavement-y guitars galore. Nice strange keyboards at the end too. Fantastic, weird stuff that transforms the original catchy oddity into a great spiky rock song. Grade: A

5. "Road Movie to Berlin" by Frank Black. Strange to think the previous Charles Douglas track sounds more like the Pixies than this does, but there it is. Another strong cover that reinvents the original as a country-rock stroll. Not perfect, but I love Frank Black, so this gets Grade: A-

6. "They'll Need a Crane" by The Wrens. My second personal favorite track on here. A complete deconstruction of the song. It becomes an agonizing, bizarre lament that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. The Wrens are such an incredible band. This, like most of their music, gets a Grade A+

7. "Dead" by Steve Burns. The guy from Blues Clues! This one doesn't blow me away, but it's nice enough. Sticks close to the original but with a little bit of a psychedelic/laptop element, if that makes any sense. Pleasant but not essential. Grade: B-

Pass on tracks 8,9,10--none of them hooked me.

11. "Dr. Worm" by Jason Trachtenburg. This is a love-it-or-hate-it song to begin with. I personally find this version endearing and fun to listen to. It sounds folky and playful. Yet obviously some people are going to hate its silly quality... Grade: B

tracks 12 & 13 are okay, but not great.

14. "End of the Tour" by Hotel Lights. This blows the original right out of the water--completely perfect in every way. Hotel Lights have taken a great song and made it completely their own. Sounds mellow, emotional, reminds me of Hotel Lights other stuff, also Kingsbury Manx, and 70's singer-songwriter stuff. Grade: A

Thus concludes my overview of this album--hope it's useful to some of y'all.

No matter the what band you base them on, tribute albums always have the inherent quality of being both great albums and total letdowns. However, in an offhanded sort of way, that is the point of a tribute album: to show how different classic songs can be interpreted by different groups of people. With that being said, "Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might Be Giants" does exactly that. And while some of the covers do tend to fall flat, the number of good (and great) completely outweighs the bad.

While some of the more faithful covers (see: "It's Not My Birthday" and "Another First Kiss") tend to be strictly "just fine," a few of the more deviant covers are the ones that stand out the most. The Long Winters' more upbeat, somewhat racous version of "Pet Name" is terribly fun to sing along, as is David Miller's "Narrow Your Eyes" (listen for the great The Who inspired guitar solo in place of Linnell's accordion solo), and Receptor's "Boat of Car" is suprisingly well done, making the song sound much more interesting, as well as more grimm at times.
As far as the less-than-favorable tracks, This Radiant Boy's obligatory punk cover of "Don't Let's Start" is so lazily performed that it almost sounds more like a parody than a tribute (at least there's already a great cover of "Don't Let's Start" by Common Rotation on their "The Big Fear" album to make up for it). OK Go doesn't do much better either with their cover of "Letterbox." While I commend them for experimenting outside of their usual upbeat sound(the song has a very glitchy and fuzzed out distortion feeling to it, almost reminiscant to Trent Reznor's work), it fails completely engage the listener.

Overall, "Hello Radio..." does exactly what a tribute album should do, and nothing less. Still, I completely recommend that any fan of They Might Be Giants should buy it to at least view (and possibly rediscover) some of their favorite songs from a different perpective.

TMBG rocks and so does this tribute album. Best of the best is Frank Black, Long Winters, Charles Douglas, & The Wrens. Good is Self, David Miller & Hotel Lights. Decent is Steve Burns, Ok Go, Brett Kull & Fluid Ounces. Bad is Recepter, This Radiant Boy, & Jason Trachtenburg and the fact that Reel Big Fish are MIA. If you get this you will like it, though as many of the covers top the TMBG originals.