I heard about the album from a friend of mine who worked at a record store in Helsinki. When I saw the artist list in the back of the album, I was convinced. It included so many of my absolute favourite artists and bands. The ones I didn't know already, I've discovered through this album. So, in the end, this is not even just getting new music from my favourite artists, but also about finding new artists that are similar and thus very potentially interesting. years later, I bought another similar album by Red Hot Organization. This other album is a compilation of Grateful Dead covers from the greatest indie acts of 10's. But more about that later.
The album starts with the song Knotty Pine, an upbeat and quite psychedelic song by Dirty Projectors and David Byrne. Some of Dirty Projector's songs are a bit chaotic for my taste, but this one is a hoot. This is followed by absolutely beautiful re-make of Nick Drake's Cello Song, performed by The Books and José Gonzalés. It sounds a lot like the original, but instead of acoustic guitar, this song has electronic pulsing sounds keeping the tempo. Train Song is a duet version of the great Train Song sung by Ben Gibbard and Feist. This is Americana folk at its finest. Brackett, WI is like a lost track from Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago. Grizzly Bear sometimes makes songs that don't really stick with me, but Deep Blue Sea is one of the more memorable songs. The National, of course, have their own song on this album. So Far Around the Bend is a fantastic song with a slightly more cheery melody than most of The National songs from around that era. Yeasayer always has very experimental sounds, but I do like them when they achieve to keep their melodies somewhat catchy and that's the case with Tightrope. My Brightest Diamond gives one of the best cover performances ever by singing the legendary song Feeling Good with eerie and hypnotic style that grows through the song. Kronos Quartet provides a title track for the album by playing an old-school blues song that most likely has its roots in Blind Willie Johnson's song Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. I Was young When I Left Home is a great collaboration with Antony from Antony and the Johnsons and Bryce Dessner. It has a nice country feel to it that somehow works really well with Antony's amazing vocals. Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver and Aaron Dessner have made a nice echoey piano ballad Big Red Machine, which probably refers to the name of the organisation behind this album. Sleepless is one of the greatest songs by The Decemberists and that's really saying a lot. This long song is a prime example of a storytelling song. Iron & Wine have made a short acoustic song with a cheery title, Die. The song is short but sounds amazing. Service Bell by Feist and Grizzly Bear is slightly strange and distorted echoey ballad that sounds magical. The first CD ends with Sufjan Stevens' amazing electronically chaotic song, You Are the Blood, that has one of the saddest melodies you could possibly imagine.
The second album starts with a simple punk rock song Well-Alright, performed the amazing Spoon. It might not be one of their best songs, but I'm really glad they're included on this album as well. Probably the biggest band of all of these at the time, Arcade Fire, has made another amazingly massive indie epic titled Lenin. This is followed by Beirut's wavy accordion in a song Mimizan. My Morning Jacket follows this with the song El Caporal, that has some great horn sections in an otherwise folky Americana song. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings sounds slightly different to other artists on this album, but their song Inspiration Information is a fantastic example of their soul sound. David Sitek's With a Girl Like You sounds a bit more like some 90's alternative songs with it's strong guitar walls in the background. After this, it's time for possibly the most experimental song on the album by Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti as Buck 65 Remix. Blood Pt. 2 combines hip hop with Sufjan Stevens' melancholic backgrounds and wailing. Hey, Snow White is a fantastic song by the always amazing The Pornographers. There's a true sense of a singalong in this song. Yo La Tengo's Gentle Hour is guaranteed yo La Tengo psychedelia with hypnotic lagging rhythms. Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch has made a song, Another Saturday, for this album that sounds a lot more like the early Belle & Sebastian songs than those that came out around the release of this album. Happiness by Jónsi & Alex has some massive church organs and amazing electric guitars played on a bow. Cat Power and Dirty Delta Blues play quite a traditional sounding version of Amazing Grace, that has some proper gospel sounds. Andrew Bird became one of my favourite artists after this album when I heard his amazing song The Giant of Illinois. Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Gillian Welch perform a great duet of Lua, one of the greatest Bright Eyes songs. When the Road Runs Out combines the talents of Blonde Redhead and Devastations. In the usual style, the song is very melodramatic. The album ends with Love vs. Porn by Kevin Drew, mainly known for Broken Social Scene. This song sounds like it was played in a cellar somewhere deep below the ground.
It's quite incredible how well this album's artists have been selected from the artists I used to listen to around 2008. This makes this one of the greatest compilations ever made.
Listen to the album on Spotify.
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