Album Review: Dark Was the Night

The folks at the Red Hot Organization somehow managed to get an amazing collection of artists together, including David Byrne, Jose Gonzalez, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, The National, Yeasayer, The Decemberists, Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens, Spoon, Arcade Fire, Beirut, My Morning Jacket, The New Pornographers, Yo La Tengo, Stuart Murdoch (from Belle & Sebastian), Cat Power, Andrew Bird, Conor Oberst, Blonde Redhead and Kevin Drew, to form a “dream team” charity album of sorts called Dark Was the Night. I imagine that a lot of planning and back-and-forth file swapping went into their final product, but their hard work pays off. It’s as if you made a really great tape on a day when you were sitting on the floor surrounded by a bunch of your random indie records. Only not only are you dubbing the tape, you’ve also found a way to donate money to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS at the same time.

Favorite tracks so far are “Feeling Good” by My Brightest Diamond, “Tightrope” by Yeasayer, “So Far around the Bend” by The National, “Brackett, WI” by Bon Iver, “Happiness” by Riceboy Sleeps and “Lua” by Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch. But there really isn’t a bad one in the bunch. Well, except for the Sufjan song, which, clocking in at a long 10 minutes and 14 seconds, is a little self-important and droning. But overall, it's a really great album for an even better cause.