Quantcast

Call for Feature Essays About Any Aspect of Popular Culture, Present or Past

Music
cover art

Various Artists

Water for Life

(Compass Records; US: 19 Jan 2009; UK: 13 Jan 2009)

Wells for Zoe is the name of a small Irish organization that works to provide potable water for people who live in the Malawian countryside. “The purchase of this CD,” says their website, “helps to provide funding for future projects.” Like many charity compilations it has the feel of a grab-bag. You can imagine the compilers phoning people. Sinéad, it’s for a good cause. Would you mind—? Thanks!


There are a few instrumental Irish folk tracks, a few songs in country-American style, and a few one-offs: a cover of “Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves” performed by an Irish singer who aims to sound like Aretha Franklin, plus a thin pop demo from Paul Brady which will only seem acceptable if you like Paul Brady. The Scottish-Latin group Salsa Celtica contributes “Cumbia Celtica”. It’s not the group’s strongest song but worth attending to if you’re curious. The idea of combining Scottish folk music with Latin sounds like a silly gimmick but this group redeems it completely. Cover bad, album pretty good.

Rating:

Media
Watermans - Michael McGoldrick
Comments
Now on PopMatters
Hip Hop Es Mi Cultura (Columns) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Van Halen: A Different Kind of Truth (Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Eyvind Kang: The Narrow Garden (Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
The Soft Hills: The Bird Is Coming Down to Earth (Capsule Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Matthias Sturm: Blood and Thunder (Capsule Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Jack DeJohnette: Sound Travels (Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Sam Mickens: Slay & Slake (Capsule Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Sibiri Samake: Dambe Foli (Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Big Fresh: Moneychasers (Capsule Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
Alyssa Graham: Lock, Stock & Soul (Reviews) [Mon, 1:00 am]
A Painting Come to Life: 'The Mill & the Cross' (Short Ends and Leader) [Fri, 4:00 pm]
  1. 'Nebraska': Bruce Springsteen's 'Heart of Darkness' (Columns)
  2. The 10 Greatest Shakespeare Film Adaptations of All Time (Short Ends and Leader)
  3. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 1: From 13Ghosts to Friendly Fires (Features)
  4. Not-So-Central Casting: Kevin Smith and the Birth of the Reality Podcast (Features)
  5. The 10 Greatest Movie Spies Ever (Short Ends and Leader)
  6. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 2: From the Go! Team to the Phoenix Foundation (Features)
  7. Slipped Discs 2011 - Part 3: From Real Estate to Youth Lagoon (Features)
  8. Lana Del Rey: Born to Die (Reviews)
  9. The Top 15 Madonna Singles of All Time (Sound Affects)
  10. Get Off of My Cloud!: 'Collecting' Music in the Digital Age (Features)
  11. Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Reviews)
  12. Google and the Production of Curiosity (Marginal Utility)
  13. Carole E. Barrowman’s Authorial Journey to Hollow Earth (Features)
  14. “Don’t Let Me Fall”: Hip-Hop in the Age of Austerity (Features)
  15. Tower Songs: Townes Van Zandt (Columns)
  16. Black Bananas: Rad Times Xpress IV (Reviews)
  17. Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (Reviews)
  18. The Gay Ole Countryside (Columns)
  19. Of Montreal: Paralytic Stalks (Reviews)
  20. Counterbalance No. 67: John Coltrane’s 'A Love Supreme' (Sound Affects)
  21. Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro: A Rock Star’s Midlife Crisis or Valid Literature? (Features)
  22. A Look to the Past, An Insight Into the Present: The Use of Gender in 'Mad Men' (Features)
  23. The 10 Best John Coltrane Solos (Sound Affects)
  24. A Tale of How Great Journalism Became Revisionist History: Grambling State U Football (Columns)
  25. Chairlift: Something (Reviews)
  26. Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (Reviews)
  27. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - "Heart Attack" (Cosmic Kids Remix) (PopMatters Premiere) (Mixed Media)
  28. The Barbaric (and Poetic) Yawp of Shelby Lynne (Notes from the Road)
  29. After Cease to Exist: The Far-from-Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Features)
  30. Mitt Romney Can Reside at Today's Proverbial 'Downton Abbey'... Newt Gingrich Cannot (Features)
PM Picks
Music Archive
Announcements

© 1999-2012 PopMatters.com. All rights reserved.
PopMatters.com™ and PopMatters™ are trademarks
of PopMatters Media, Inc.

PopMatters is wholly independently owned and operated.
PopMatters is a member of BUZZMEDIA Music, MOG and Guardian Select.