AP Photo/Scanpix/Bjorn Larsson Rosvall
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Somewhere on the rocky coast of New Zealand, a group of musicians gathered for three weeks around Christmas. Answering local songwriter Neil Finn's invitation, musicians such as Jeff Tweedy, KT Tunstall, Bic Runga, Sebastian Steinberg, Edward O'Brien, Phil Selway, and Johnny Marr made the long trip to work together. The result is The Sun Came Out, a new album by 7 Worlds Collide.
With proceeds going to Oxfam, and all of the travel and performance emissions offset by carboNZero, the intentions of the latest 7 World's Collide album are clear. The project is not like charity albums of the past: just a list of big names and didactic messages. It's not a collection of hokey ensemble pieces destined for the bargain bin of the world's music shops.
Instead, The Sun Came Out is the product of a group of talented and respected musicians coming together under intense pressure to create original music that is innovative. Indeed, the music and lyrics are haunting but there is a certain excitement in the melancholy chords as well. Ed O'Brian commented that "the music that comes out of this place, it's relaxed, it's joyous. But there's also a dark undercurrent. Like New Zealanders, there's a heart of darkness to this place."
It's exciting to hear a Radiohead-esque guitar riff emerge from behind the Wilco frontman's lyrics, only to have it blend into a soft chorus from KT Tunstall or Bic Runga. There are a lot of voices on this album, and a lot of different musical styles, but, amazingly, they all seem to come together in a synergy instead of a muddle. More impressive is that the songs sound organic, as though they were coming from a skilled pop-group towards the end of their career. Even though the group began as strangers, there is nothing mechanical or cold about this album.
This is all the more reason to pick up the product of this unique meeting. Available as a complete double-disk album or a single-disk highlights album, The Sun Came Out, is a carbon-offset way to support good music, conscious artists, and the efforts of Oxfam.
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