Running to…buy this album?

While everyone is counting down the days until the release of No Line On The Horizon, the War Child: Heroes covers album might be a compelling audio distraction until March 2nd or 3rd (depending where you are in the world).

Why?

This compilation is an album with a mission.

As an international organization, War Child works to protect children in war-torn areas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Since 1995, War Child Music has partnered with music industry giants to raise awareness of their cause. What makes the War Child: Heroes album particularly special is the unprecedented collaboration between seasoned legends and today’s hottest artists.

War Child approached 15 rock icons and asked them to select a song from their catalog AND to determine which new artist they wanted to reinterpret their hand-picked track. The resulting album is the fruits of this labor. U2’s “Running to Stand Still” is on this album. The artist covering their song? Elbow.

I think the idea behind this album is pure genius. I imagine it would be far easier for a band to determine what song they would like to cover from another artist than to pick a cover from their own catalog. That’s got to be the creative equivalent to picking which one your own children will go up for adoption. I gotta hand it to U2, their pick was brilliant. The song wasn’t the obvious choice and it’s meaty enough as a song to warrant multiple interpretations without degrading the power of the original. I can’t wait to hear how Elbow re-imagines this fan favorite.

If War Child sounds familiar, it should. All proceeds from the “Miss Sarajevo” single and the 1995 Luciano Pavrotti and Friends concert were donated to the charity.

The album will be released in the UK on February 16; in the USA on February 24; and in Canada on March 3.

More information on the album can be found here:
http://www.warchild.org.uk/heroes

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