Album: Various Artists

War Child: Hope, London

The first War Child benefit compilation raised more than £1m for Bosnian children back in 1995. Its curator, Brian Eno, lent a unity of purpose to the proceedings by having all the performers record their tracks on the same day. This Iraq-targeted follow-up has no such superstructure, and is thus more subject to the familiar charity-album drawback of overextensive variety. It does, however, have a surprisingly high quotient of decent tracks. Most contributors opt for covers of simpatico songs, with Avril Lavigne coming over all Dolores O'Riordan on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", New Order putting their own stamp on Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam", and The Charlatans' Tim Burgess affecting a reasonable impression of Curtis Mayfield's falsetto on "We Gotta Have Peace". Two covers are particularly impressive: George Michael's reading of Don McLean's lament "The Grave" is impassioned and tasteful, while Beverley Knight gives a tour-de-force vocal display on her cover of Stevie Wonder's "Love's in Need of Love Today". Of the new material, Billy Bragg offers a prescient but dour updating of "With God on Our Side" in "The Wolf Covers Its Tracks". "The Beautiful Occupation", meanwhile, is about as bitter and sardonic as Travis are ever likely to get; the strongest track, though, comes from Blue's Lee Ryan: his "Stand Up as People" has the infectious simplicity of the great protest anthems.