Back in 1995 a group of indie celebrities made Help!, a special album of one-off performances designed to raise money for the Bosnian charity War Child. Now it's been followed by 1 Love, a similar venture with an updated cast, the novelty here being that they've all recorded versions of their favourite No. 1 singles by other artists. As a noble project, it's beyond reproach - but as an album, it can only be described as frustratingly patchy. The most successful tracks are the most unexpected: Prodigy's eerie take on Ghost Town and Muse's hysterically over-the-top rendition of House of the Rising Sun. Elsewhere, however, some of the usual suspects do their best to lower the tone, with Noel Gallagher's joyless take on Happy Xmas Everybody and Stereophonics' grim version of Nothing Compares 2 U. Most of the rest - including Manic Street Preachers, Jimmy Eat World, Feeder etc - is efficient but disappointingly low on genuine inspiration. By all means, buy this - it is, after all, a very worthy cause. But don't necessarily expect to be playing it all that often.
