VA - Dark Was The Night

This 2CD compilation, curated by The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, sounded exciting at first. Maybe you thought "Oh, wow! There are all sorts of my favourite indie rockers on this thing!", and then worried "But wait, maybe it's all hype...", but then downloaded it anyway, just because you had to know. Well, whether it was the pressure of sharing a tracklist with so many of-the-now acts or just because everyone really gave a damn about the cause, this comp is actually very worthy of a listen, with interesting collaborations (Feist with Grizzly Bear, Bright Eyes with Gillian Welch, Dirty Projectors with David Byrne, Bon Iver and Antony each pairing up with a Dessner brother) and a fine selection of cover tunes (TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek fuzzes over The Troggs; The Books and Jose Gonzalez together make a nice Nick Drake; and Kronos Quartet instrumentalize Blind Willie Johnson for the title track). So, after sorting through all your favourite interpretations and co-written exclusives, you remember that this is a Red Hot record and all net proceeds go to benefit AIDS prevention and awareness, and then maybe decide to buy it.