pootling

Albums Of The Year 2009: Dark Was The Night by Various Artists

Most charity albums are for a good cause, but end up being a bit worthy. Even some of the best ones (1995’s Help album for example) tend to be a bit on the patchy side. A few great tracks taped together with an awful lot of filler.

COngratulations to Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National, then, for putting together an album that’s not only for a good cause (raising funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS through the Red Hot Organization), but is also quite spectacularly brilliant.

Almost all of the best artists operating in the US appear on the album. The National themselves are there, as are Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, The Decemberists, Iron and Wine and Sufjan Stevens - and that’s just the first disc. Once you pop in disc two (imagine that you’re listening to it in the past where you have to change discs) and you get Arcade Fire, Beirut, Sharon Jones, Cat Power and Conor Oberst.

And these aren’t tracks that would otherwise have become b-sides - they’re outstanding examples of tracks by bands at the tops of their collective game. The opening track, Knotty Pine by Dirty Projectors and David Byrne sets the standard extraordinarily high, and the rest of the album lives up to it wonderfully.  Feist and Ben Gibbard’s cover of Vashti Bunyan’s Train Song, for example is probably my favourite Feist track ever.

So go and buy the album, and while you’re listening to it, you can feel warm and fuzzy in the knowledge you’ve done something good for others, as well as nourishing yourself with some of the best music released this year.

Spotify Link