4AD/ The Red Hot Organisation 'Dark Was The Night'

I remember buying 'No Alternative', a similar alt-charity record for the Red Hot foundation, on its release in 1993 and it was this album that led me to discover Pavement, so it will always hold a fond place in my memory. Sixteen years later it is interesting to see how different an 'alternative' compilation sounds. Back in '93 grunge was in vogue and most of the songs on 'No Alternative' were loud and guitar heavy. The most obvious difference between the two albums is that on 'Dark Was The Night' you probably hear twice as many acoustic guitars as you do electric, reflecting the current trend for alt.folk or whatever it is called these days.

4AD have certainly pulled out all the stops for this compilation, curated by The National. Containing 30 tracks and featuring some of the biggest names in US indie, this undoubtably serves as a excellent document of the times. The problem is, and it is a problem on all compilations of this type is that there is a reason that artists have left these songs off their own albums, or deamed them expendable enough to not keep them for insertion on a future album....they are often not that good.

This holds true for the contributions from Bon Iver (dull enough to be on 'Blood Bank'), Arcade Fire (ok, but nothing thrilling), Iron and Wine (very slight), Beirut (could have been a b side) and The Decemberists. Elsewhere, The National offer a decent new song about a girl lost in New York who is "praying for Pavement to get back together"), Spoon provide some welcome humour and a jaunty melody and My Morning Jacket contribute a light, charming waltz.

The most successful contributions are from artists who do something a little different. Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch reworks an old Scottish folk song into a pretty and touching song with a lyri he wrote to sing at his Church. It is lovely and the best thing here by some distance. Conor Oberst re-records 'Lua', his lonely tale of drug-addicted lovers, with Gillian Welch. As a duet it works perfectly, sounding fragile, broken and tired. Finally Blonde Redhead join with The Devastations on the hushed Bjork-esque 'When The Road Runs Out'.

The compilation would probably have been better had some of the less essential stuff been ommitted and the running order been cut from the pretty exhausting 30 tracks. There is something for pretty much everybody here though and it is such a worthy cause that if you are only interested in a couple of the songs, it is still well worth buying. Those artists who have made the effort to have provided something interesting rather than just providing something, should be applauded most loudly.

['Dark Was The Night' is out now on cd from 4AD]