Album Review: Various Artists - Day Of The Dead

Knowing where to start here is near impossible. Fifty-nine covers of Grateful Dead songs collated for Red Hot, a now 20-album suite of charity albums that raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDs.

Deadheads Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National gathered artists including our Courtney Barnett (New Speedway Boogie), The Flaming Lips (Dark Star), Mumford & Sons (Friend Of The Devil), Wilco and Bob Weir (St Stephen) and Anohni and yMusic (Black Peter), with some like The National themselves and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy having more than one crack at the cherry with a couple of tracks to contribute.

The result — like The Grateful Dead's output themselves — is quite overwhelming, but bloody lovely. Billy's If I Had The World To Give rolls sweetly with what sounds like a battered upright piano — a clear highlight to warm the hardest of hearts, while The National's version of Morning Dew sounds both well-worn and new all at once. The blues roots of the original tunes come through with performances like Lucinda Williams & Friends' Going Down The Road Feeling Bad and Kurt Vile and The Violaters' Box Of Rain, although the main thing the compilation does is get you lost in the old songs and new sounds. It also reminds the listener of how much music there is — and how many new (and old) tunes there are to still connect and catch up.

A wonderful collection, but a complete sonic blackhole. Don't listen when you have other work to finish.