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Various Artists
Dark Was the Night
Review By Chris Drabick
Beginning with 1990’s star-studded Red Hot & Blue tribute to Cole Porter, the Red Hot series has been an ambitious and (mostly) satisfying AIDS benefit project. The compilations have run the gamut from Red Hot & Country to Red Hot & Rio. Twice previously the series enlisted the help of the alt/indie rock world; 1992’s stellar No Alternative was a landmark that featured must-have tracks by Nirvana, Pavement and others, and 1995’s slightly more obscure (but still great) Red Hot + Bothered. After an extended absence, the series returns with another absolutely essential entry. Dark Was the Night is a who’s-who of indie rock, with practically every predictable band and artist contributing very worthy tracks to a very worthy cause.
There simply isn’t space to discuss every great track, but many of the record’s covers are unexpected winners. The Books and Jose Gonzalez collaborate to bring a fascinatingly stilted quality to Nick Drake’s “Cello Song,” Sufjan Stevens devotes 10 + minutes to an intense reading of Castanets’ “You Are the Blood,” and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings probably should’ve already covered Shuggie Otis’ “Inspiration Information (but you’re still glad they did). The National, the curators of the set, contribute the superb “So Far Around the Bend” (which is given extra life by a sprite Nico Mulhy arrangement), and Grizzly Bear contributes two highlights; “Deep Blue Sea” is pretty and understated, and their work with Feist on “Service Bell” is typically grand. There’s essentially no excuse for skipping this essential set.
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