Various Artists
Noise for Now Vol. 2
NOISE FOR NOW/ADA
For the righteous benefit of abortion access and reproductive rights comes the second in the necessary series of Noise for Now various-artist compilations featuring the indie-est of indie newbies and veteran musicians alike. Following the organization’s initial volume launched last year on Record Store Day Black Friday, this second edition of the benefit series builds upon the variety, starpower, and vitality of that initial release with a tracklist boasting original recordings and other curiosities from Big Freedia, Julia Jacklin, Becca Mancari, Claud, MC50 and Arrow De Wilde, and Seratones’ AJ Haynes, among others.
Despite that star power, I wouldn’t be wrong in stating that the long-awaited David Byrne and Devo duet “Empire”—originally from Byrne’s 1997 collaborative album Feelings—wasn’t the absolute highlight of this compilation. “What’s good for business is good for us all,” laments an irony-drenched Byrne in his best Samuel L. Gompers manner, while backed by the richly swelling, French-horn-sounding electronics of Devo for their surprisingly non-jerky teaming on the “ironic capitalist fascist anthem” that Byrne noted has become less satirical and more documentary in the time since it was written.
Yet that in no way means dismissing vocalist-songwriter Faye Webster’s twinkling, slow-country, live-jam version of “Lifetime,” the psilocybin-laced electricity of The War on Drugs’ live take on “Victim,” or the breathy Sofia Isella who runs through “Hot Gum (she version)” with the same fever that she sings of, and that her violin saws through. Also included in this Noise for Now collection is one of my favorite songwriters, Courtney Barnett, crusting and cruising her way through a speckled, spindly demo of her track “Boxing Day Blues” from her breakout 2015 album Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. Find this, buy this, and save some lives.
