Help: A Day in the Life fizzles out

Chel Quintana Guest Writer

Last Friday, I checked the front page of the popular Radiohead fan site ateaseweb.com to discover the headline “Radiohead records ‘I Want None of This today.’” It’s been over two years since Radiohead has released any new material, but they’ve spent a good deal of time in the studio lately, so I didn’t bother reading any further. Thus, when I read the headline “‘I Want None Of This’ finally available for download” the next day, I was pleasantly shocked.

Over the course of the previous day, the War Child charity, which provides aid to children victimized by war, assembled a lineup of British all-stars to record the fastest album ever released. On Sept. 8, artists including Coldplay, Gorrilaz, Kaiser Chiefs, and Damien Rice entered recording studios all over the world. On Sept. 9, the 22-track album Help: A Day In The Life was available for download at warchildmusic.com at the price of 99p ($1.79) per song or £9.99 ($18.01) for the entire album. The release marks the anniversary of the first Help album, which raised over £1.25 million (roughly $2.25 million) when it was released by War Child ten years ago.

Despite a few highlights, A Day In The Life is a bit of a disappointment. Although it is labeled as a Radiohead song, “I Want None of This” is little more than a Thom Yorke solo track. Think “You and Whose Army” minus the glorious two minutes when the band actually kicks in. It’s hard to not feel a bit cheated considering the original Help featured the song “Lucky” two whole years prior to its release on OK Computer. Gorrilaz’s “Hong Kong” and Bloc Party’s “The Present” are the only two songs on the album that would still be worth buying if the proceeds weren’t going to such a worthy cause. Both are very solid songs that would fit right in on both bands’ current releases, despite sounding distinctly original from anything either has produced before. Still, there are a few other interesting tracks included here. War Child’s message is perhaps best represented by “Gua,” an uplifting hip hop song from Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier who has become one of Kenya’s most popular rappers. The Go! Team’s “Phantom Broadcast” shows potential, and after getting off to a slow start, Elbow’s “Snowball” builds into a beautiful song of the melancholy rock variety.

Unfortunately, the rest of A Day In The Life is a mix of mediocre songs by mediocre artists, a disappointing song from Coldplay, and completely unnecessary covers of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” by Kaiser Chiefs and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Keane and Faultline. But you couldn’t really expect much more from such a hastily put together effort.