Last weekend I bought this CD from the Rough Trade East record store. It’s a very special charity compilation, which was curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. The National, being a band at the epicentre of the indie community, have been able to collect 31 exclusive tracks, from likeminded musicians like Bright Eyes, Stuart Murdoch (of Belle & Sebastian), Iron & Wine, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Cat Power, Beirut, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, and the list goes on. There are also some Yellow Bird contributors on this CD, including Bon Iver, The New Pornographers, My Brightest Diamond, Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene, and of course – The National. 

There are some real gems on this CD. A couple of the highlights for me are, the National’s original – ‘Far Around the Bend’, and the Antony Hegarty/Bryce Dessner cover of a lesser known Bob Dylan song called ‘When I was Young I Left Home’. This is our kind of album, and if you’re reading this blog than it’s probably an album for you too. So go out and buy it! All profits go to raising funds and awareness for HIV.

I won’t post any MP3s from the album, but their microsite has this cool widget which enables you to choose any three songs, and post them on your blog. So, I’ve chosen my three favourite, which you can listen to below.