Charity albums are of necessity reactive - thrown together in days, they can't avoid that artists-caught-on-the-hop feel.
Hope is a ragbag of covers, new songs and re-recordings of old ones by acts who would normally ignore each other in the Tops of the Pops backstage bar, among them David Bowie, Basement Jaxx, Paul McCartney and someone from Blue.
For the most part, you'd be better off sending £13.99 directly to the War Child charity; some tracks are arresting, though. Witness Avril Lavigne's palpable bewilderment as she turns her attention from sk8er bois to Dylan's Knocking on Heaven's Door, and Ronan Keating's uncharacteristic gravitas on In the Ghetto.
Beth Orton makes it through the R&B classic Ooh, Child, but pales next to Travis, whose handsome new song The Beautiful Occupation harnesses their innate poignance.
McCartney and Bowie's revamped versions of songs from recent albums are functional. It's all par for the course, save for the absence of charity regular Elton John.
