In 1995, at the height of Britpop, some of the biggest bands at the time recorded the original 'Help' album for War Child to raise funds for children caught up in conflicts around the world. Young acts such as Blur, Oasis and Radiohead played alongside veterans such as Paul Wellar to record the album in 5 days, setting the record for the fastest album ever recorded, mastered and released.The album was a huge success, raised £1.25 million for the charity and was nominated for the Mercury that year.

10 years to the day, the feat has been repeated. Some of the biggest new bands such as Bloc Party, Maximo Park and Babyshambles have played alongside veterans acts such as Radiohead to record and released the album (via the internet) in 32 hours (a new record), hoping to recreate the success of the original.

Needless to say, it is worth buying this album because it is a worthy cause, but it is also important to know that the album is any good, and not just a rushed piece of crap. The following review will give brief descriptions of the various tracks on the album, although I'm not sure if they are in the correct order:

1. Radiohead: I Want None Of This-Tantalising glimpse of album number 7 from the Oxford legends is an interesting one. At just over 3 minutes, it is short by their standards, features a piano, Thom Yorke on top form, spooky atmospherics, and some haunting backng vocals, it sounds like something off Kid A performed sans electronic trickery. Brilliant if somewhat underwhelming.
2. The Coral: It Was Nothing: Reggae-tinged offering from the scouse band. Like something off their first album musically, but with a downbeat, maturity found on their more recent offerings and a slightly Smiths-y chorus giving way to psychedelic solo. Interesting pop gem.
3. The Zutons: Hello Conscience: After the slow start, the album picks up here. Fast paced, up pop that the band do very well. Handclaps, cowbell, saxophone. All add up to a great offering fom them.
4. Elbow: Snowball: Guy Garvey sings over a swelling backdrop of layered guitar and strings; the kind of beautiful sadness they excel at, mixed with a good deal of anger at politicians. Switches up a temp at the three minute mark as the music swells higher and higher, ending in a wall of noise.
5. The Magic Numbers: Gone Are The Days: More of the lovely harmonies found on their debut, with a slow acoustic lament with a piano coming into play at the half-way point. Lovely, happy song.
6.Maximo Park: Wasteland: The kind of frenetic song that they do well but with added depth provided by keyboard played during the chorus. Good lyrics, great melody and interesting musicianship as it changes style when a glam-rock style lick breaks through.
7. The Go! Team: Phantom Broadcast: Like a lost 60's gem found by Dr Dre. Starts off slow with strings and a guitar playing the melody in lieu of any words. Nice backing vocals. They're great they are.
8. Emmanuel Ja: Gua: An injection of hip-hop into the mix. With a great female choir providing the chorus and a male choir adding layers to a welcome break from the norm of indie bands that have so far been played. Politicised lyrics touching upon Emmanuel's early life in Africa as a child soldier.
9. Keane and Faultline: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: I don't like Keane, but they do have a good stab at the Elton John classic and do manage to make it their own as opposed to a faceless retread. Nice, gentle music with Tom Chaplin's voice on good form.
10. Kaiser Chiefs: I Heard It Through The Grapevine: The Leeds 5 piece have a go at the Marvin Gaye classic and do manage to make it theri own. That's not saying it's anywhere near as good as the original, but it ain't half bad. Good vocals, fuzzy bass and decent guitar work; better than would be expected.
11. Bloc Party: The Present: Strong offering from the London band. Great guitar work, fantastic vocal from Kele on a slowy in the vein of 'Blue Light' or 'Two More Years'. Effects-laden guitars half-way through mix with synths to take the song up a gear.
12. Hard-Fi: Help Me Please: Slow, piano-led song. Chorus that wouldn't llok out of place on a McFly record. But it works. Nice downbeat song.
13. Belle and Sebastian: The Eighth Station of the Cross Kebab House: A ska vibe underlines lyrics about a female assassin, getting caught at a checkpoint, a man who ''looks like a prisoner in hell''. The oddballs of the pop scene are on top form here.
14. Tinariwen: Cler Achel: Funky, acoustic number with a decidedly Eastern sound. As with 'Gua' it is not only very good, but it adds diversity to the record as a whole.
15. Antony and Boy George: The Mercury winner who is Marmite personified lends his unique voice to a song which was never one of Lennon's strongest solo offerings. Boy George does a good job but it really is Antony's song. His voice raises the song up a level (or drags it down, depending on what you think of him) and the end result is interesting, though it is not wholly successful.
16. Gorillaz: Hong Kong: The longest song on the album at 7:14 and Damon Albarn's alter-egos' most ambitious song to date. The sound of the Far East is all over the song with lush strings, Asian instrumentation but mixed with guitar and piano to create a wonderful cultutr-clash. 2D's vocal on it is very good, and the whole package is astounding to hear. As good as anything on Demon Days, more innovative than the entire album.
17. Babyshambles: From Bollywood To Battersea: Mr Doherty wouldn't be so loved, and loathed, if it weren't for the fact that he wrote some really good sngs that resonated with people. This is one such song. A decent vocal performance from the lad, some good acoustic guitar work and great 'ooooh-oooohs' topped off with some strange sounds.
18: Manic Street Preachers: Leviathon: It's as if Richey were still there. Loud guitars, James Dean Bradfield's distinctive voice and a great bit of bass creat one of their best songs in the best part of a decade.
19: Razorligh: Kirby's House: Harmonica defines the first half of this song, a gospel choir the second half. Both feature some nice musicianship, the first has some standard indie guitar, the second a slow build up to a grand choral climax that drives the song to the end. A song of two halves and the most interesting song they have yet to produce. Like Primal Scream working with Dylan.
20: Damien Rice: Cross-Eyed Bear: I don't really care for Damien Rice, but this is a really lovely song. Starting slow with guitar and restrained vocals from Rice, strings enter followed by a female vocalist, similarly restrained. The strings slowly grow in the background and the song finishes with just Rice and his guitar. Short, sweet, palindromic. Very nice song.
21: Mylo: Mars Needs Women: A great slice of dance from the best thing to happen to dance since ecstacyTM. Mellow compared to the likes of 'Drop The Pressure', but still good. Synths soar, bass and vocals are sporadically heard, it doesn't outstay it's welcome but makes it's mark.
22: Coldplay: How You See The World No.2: Starts acoustically with Chris Martin singing about shady men in black trenchcoats, switches to electric guitar, strings and a piano part that owes more than a small debt to later Beatles/Early solo Lennon. More 'Politik' than 'Trouble'. Coldplay in experimental form as opposed to anthemic. Ending abruptly, as if they realised that the deadline was pressing and they couldn't keep going, it is a great ending to the album.

Overall, I'd give the album a 9.5/10, but my judgement doesn't really do it justice. The sheer number of artists who have contributed and the diversity of the acts (admittedly they are mostly indie but the bands don't sound too much like each other) defy categorisation and the ability to properly review it. It is a great achievement musically and in terms of what it aims to do for the world, and is well worth the buy.

Nice review maian the CD version is out monday isnt it?

Really interesting review. I'm definitely going to get the album, mainly just for the Antony and the Johnsons song

Yep.

Apparently the tracks recorded by the Zutons and Belle and Sebastian won't be on the CD version but will be released as an EP along with tracks from 2 unnamed 'high profile' artosts who weren't able to do their tracks in time.