Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a bit.
31 years on from the legendary compilation that gathered the Britpop era’s cream of the crop, and with the world now increasingly warring around us, it feels like the ultimate moment for a second chapter of vital and hard-hitting tunes from some of the key players of the 2020s.
It kicks off with Arctic Monkeys’ first track for some time, ‘Opening Night’, a safe and reliable starting point. The ever-present national institution that is Damon Albarn – and how on earth has he not been knighted yet? – gets together with the abundantly talented Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC and Kae Tempest, who provides poetic verse on the brilliant ‘Flags’.
There are many contributions filling the record to its brim with life, energy, and some mesmerising musical magic. Some, as one might expect across a 23-track and almost 90-minute beast of a collection, hit harder than others, really seem to get to the heart of the project.
When another legend Beth Gibbons appears and is swiftly followed by stunning vocalist Arooj Aftab and well-known Beck covering ‘Lilac Wine’ (a track I know from the perfect cover performance by Jeff Buckley in the 1990s) the compilation has reached a new level of beauty. That Beck sits back and only delicately joins in with Aftab after several minutes of her divine singing, is intelligent musicianship indeed.
Depeche Mode’s signature sound is anything but world weary after so many decades. If anything, it feels more essential in its familiar doom-laden sound and lyrics than ever before in the band’s apt cover of 1963 Vietnam-inspired Buffy Sainte-Marie track ‘Universal Soldier’.
‘Helicopters’ is a gorgeous reggae meeting between Ezra Collective and Greentea Peng, as is the invasion of Blur’s Graham Coxon on guitar for the track ‘Parasite’ with English Teacher.
Where the original 1995 charity album featured only British and Irish acts, there are gathered here some of the finest musicians and songwriters from across the pond in the US – Big Thief and Cameron Winter contribute new tracks ‘Relive’, ‘Redie’ and ‘Warning’ respectively.
The lyrics of Adrianne Lenker (of Big Thief) are ever ready to pour truth on all the lies and turmoil, to solve problems through song. Winter’s drowsy and unorthodox drawl hits the nail on the head, his young inspired notes about a warning and accompanying dramatic strings drive the message home profoundly. In between those tracks comes the sublime Fontaines DC cover of fellow Irish person, the late Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Black Boys on Mopeds’.
Young Fathers storm the gates with a message – Don’t Fight the Young – yet another short and sharp entry into their canon, again demonstrating how consistently reliable and uplifting their music is.
Pulp set off a firecracker with ‘Begging for change’, carrying a message surely not lost on anyone with its searing, screeching, siren-esque call to action sound (Pulp once donated their Mercury music prize winning funds to the War Child charity).
Wet Leg’s ‘Obvious’ is a classic-sounding song, a delicious slice of seductive pop, more than enough to direct anybody to the band’s previous output if they did not already know it.
Foals’ contribution – ‘When the War is finally over’ – is the finest thing the band has done for years, and its sentiment echoes profoundly across the record and beyond, a shimmering highlight on an album jam-packed with talent and creative mayhem of the best kind.
There are some wonderful entries near the end from Bat for Lashes, her haunting vocals leaving a mark, and Olivia Rodrigo. Sandwiched in between, as the penultimate track, is the album’s crowning glory, the jewel that shines the brightest, in Anna Calvi’s ‘Sunday Light’.
Here she invites Nilüfer Yanya, Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice, and Dove Ellis to provide backing to her breath-taking, sparkling joy of a song. Calvi, ever able to bring something special to the sonic explorations she creates, as a vocalist, a composer, and a guitarist, has yet again stolen the show with another freshly penned track.
The dynamics, the nuances, the lyrics, the shared love of words and sound – how she so subtly finds the soul of what is being analysed, what is being conveyed, what is otherwise impossible to capture – is simply peerless. With all due respect (because Rodrigo’s entry is wonderful), it should probably end the album. It would be the perfect place to stop.
The project for a second time gathers some of the finest musicians around to make a meaningful statement with original gems, wonderful cover versions and a lorry load of purpose.
NMC Rating: 8/10
