Ssla

A very special promo came out today for War Child's charity "Heroes" album which is dedicated to protecting street children, child soldiers and child prisoners in war zones.  The concept of the album is quite moving as it involves some of today's biggest recording artists all banding together to do some innovative cover versions for this worthwhile cause – a Band Aid for 2009 if you will.  

Lending their efforts to the cause include Beck, Hot Chip, Estelle, Peaches, Rufus Wainwright and Franz Ferdinand to name a few.

The legendary Scissor Sisters have contributed their cover of Roxy Music's "Do The Strand" which takes you back to the sound of their electronica disco debut with Ana Matronic doing her best Grace Jones intro in the mix. It's enough to get any hardcore Scissor Sisters fan very excitable and worked up into a tizzy – including myself!  "Do The Strand" is the perfect pre-cursor to a long overdue new studio album from the band.  We know finding a new drummer is hard work, but let's get going sistas!  The sisterhood beckons…

Lily Allen also hooks up with Mick Jones for a dreamy bells and chimes version of The Clash's "Straight To Hell" – which is done in the softer, melodic pop sound that she is unleashing in the way "It's Not Me, It's You". I've never been a huge fan of Lily Allen, but her new sound is really shaping up and you should make sure to look for this tune when it hits iTunes.  

I think it's quite interesting that Scissor Sisters and Lily Allen have ended up on the same compilation album too.  To quote Ana Matronic a few years ago when a young, inexperienced Lily opened for them at Wembley Arena, - "That Lily Allen, she's going places."

War Child "Heroes" is released on February 16th on Parlophone and I highly recommend it.