Review Summary: What friends are for.
One of the truly great things about both music and being a musician is the sense of community between yourself and your musical peers, regardless of what genre of music is being played. Equipment can be borrowed, gigs can be booked for one another, tours arranged, moonlighting for each other’s bands…playing and performing music welcomes you into a family. So when a member of said family is in trouble, it’s up to the rest of them to do everything in their power to help them out.
A great example of this can be found in this very compilation.
Stroke is an expansive collection of covers, all of the works of prolific New Zealand musician Chris Knox. The forty-two year old suffered a severe, life-altering stroke (hence the title) in June of 2009 at his home. Songs have been taken from his entire discography, featuring his former bands such as The Enemy, Toy Love and the Tall Dwarfs, as well as his own solo material. Given, not every song featured is going to be to everybody’s liking. However, if this is not proof of communal, mutual respect between musicians, then it will indeed be difficult to convince you any further.
The covers performed can be divided fairly easily – between acts you’ll be easily familiar with and acts you’ll previously never have heard of in your life. There’s a lot to enjoy out of the former straight out of the gate. The late Jay Reatard opens the first disc with a charming take on "Pull Down the Shades", NZ’s own Mint Chicks deliver on a strong "Crush" and The New Pornographer’s A.C. Newman successfully takes on the brilliantly titled "Dunno Much About Life But I Know How To Breathe". Throw in appearances by The Mountain Goats (with John Darnielle’s touching spoken-word introduction to "Brave"), Dinosaur Jr.’s Lou Barlow and even Will ‘Bonnie Prince Billie’ Oldham, and you’ve got yourself a strong list of indie’s minor deities all looking to contribute to Knox’s recovery.
Interestingly enough, it’s a lot of the more obscure artists that contribute to Stroke that give the compilation an unexpectedly dark edge. Solo acoustic artist Peter Gutteridge plays a haunting seven-minute ballad entitled "Don’t Catch Fire" on the first disc – a simple progression of a handful of chords that builds into something far greater than the sum of its parts with raw emotion and echoing harmony. Gutteridge provides listeners with one of the strongest contributions of the entire album. Also of note is Hamish Kilgour’s bizarre take on "Knoxed Out", an experimental piece featuring audio from an interview with Knox himself, as well as Red & Zeke’s charming bluegrass ditty "Bodies" and a soulful "Not Given Lightly" as performed by Boh Runga (yes, Bic’s sister).
Certainly, thirty-five tracks is a pretty big ask in terms of a straightforward listen. Not every version here can match the degree of quality of the two disc’s highlights, as well. Even still, if
Stroke proves anything, it shows that that old saying of “a friend in need is a friend indeed” goes deeper than clichés – the fact that so many artists from around the world were willing to help Knox out of his situation speaks volumes about both the man himself and the good souls involved. A worthy purchase, even if you only know a handful of artists.
Stroke is a collection of very pleasant surprises.
