In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa [Compilation, Import]

As a rabid U2 fan, I like the reinterpretations of U2's stuff...very nice. The biggest exception to this would be Tomlin's cover of "Where The Streets Have No Name." It's as if he/they tried to recreate the U2 version, but fell short of the mark. If you have nothing new to bring to a cover, don't waste our time. All in all, if your a fan of the bands on this cd, or a U2 fan, you ought to hear it.

I really wanted to give this album a 5 star rating, I did... but when you hear Grits cover... you just can't. Let's address what this album is really about. It's for every Christian artist to do their favorite Bono impression. With many dreams fulfilled, I won't even address the crappy remade versions (11, 3). So to start us off the list we'll skip to the second track because Pillar did a good job. 2. Beautiful Day- Sanctus Real: Horribly awful. I remember the first time I heard this song on KLOVE and just had that awkward feeling for them. "I hope they can rebound after ruining this song" 3. 40- Starfield: Sounds like U2, even drags the vowels out! A+ for effort. 5. Gloria- A.A.: Doesn't sound like U2, but just an amazing cover. The best song on this darn cd! 6. All I Want is You- Jars of Clay: Second greatest song on this cd. As my favorite band, I love having them redo a more boring and crappy U2 song. With a little drawl on the vocals, Dan almost sounds like U2, but still keeps his dignity by not OVERALLY copying Bono. Also, thank you for making this song the blues song it should've always been, BAD EDGE! 7. Mysterious Ways- Toby Mac: Crap, crap and THEN he starts to sing/rap. This is such an awful cheesy Bono impression it makes me laugh. It just sucks. But for humor factor alone I give it an A+ 8. Pride- Delirious?: This one is too easy. Marty, I give you an A+ for always sounding like Bono and showing your U2 pipes on this version! 9. One- Tait: You tried soo hard, but you just have a bad singing voice. Have never been a Tait fan, and ruining "One" doesn't help. 10. When Love Comes to Town- Todd Agnew: CRAZY good. This version is worth buying the album alone. He does his own version and it stands alone with the other top two as great covers (Dare I say SRV guitar lead?). 11. Where the Streets- Chris Tomlin: He tries, he tries really hard... he almost gets there, but Chris just doesn't sound like Bono. His band does, but if you are a Tomlin fan like me, you'll still like hearing his voice on this top 5 U2 song.

With every listening, I like this album better and better. As is almost always true, when one loves an artist like U2, as I do, one most often loves their renditions of their songs best. But, by listening to these very different and very wonderful renditions of some of the best U2 songs ever, I now have an even better appreciation for the lyrics and the meanings of these classics. The cover artists chosen for this album are excellent. And, the fact that $.50 of each album goes to World Vision's efforts to fight AIDS in Africa makes this a deeply meaningful and worthwhile musical effort on many levels. I love it!