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January 30, 2009

New Elbow - "Running To Stand Still" (U2 Cover)

thubmnail icon: New Elbow - "Running To Stand Still" (U2 Cover)

War Child's latest covers compilation is shaping up to be the second best charity album of the year. Which is not that impressive since it's only January, but Heroes is still something to be excited about. Over the last few weeks we've highlighted contributions from Lily Allen, TV On The Radio, and Hot Chip. Now you can hear a faithful rendition of U2's heroin addict piano ballad "Running To Stand Still," courtesy of Merc Prize winners Elbow.

According to the charity's site, Elbow were nominated for the job by U2 themselves, who also selected the song. From the 1999 Joshua Tree edition of the Classic Albums TV series, here's Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, the Edge, and Bono revisiting the original demo of "Running To Stand Still":

Great doc, you should watch the whole thing.

War Child: Heroes is out 2/16 on Parlophone.

Posted at 3:28 PM by Scott in
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12 Comments

Leave it to Elbow to do such a classy cover. Nice.

Posted by: Andrew profile link at 01/30/09 3:41 PM  | Reply
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Pretty nice. Both the war child and dark was the night comps are total winners. I want them!

Posted by: d33r profile link at 01/30/09 5:00 PM  | Reply
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great song. great band. great cover.

love love loved seldom seen kid as well.

Posted by: la la landon profile link at 01/30/09 5:56 PM  | Reply
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Nicely done. This is probably one of my favorite U2 songs ever. And Garvey's voice sounds perfectly at home in this wonderful rendition.

Posted by: Music Critic at 01/30/09 6:40 PM  | Reply
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This certainly is a beautiful cover. One of my all-time favorite U2 tracks as well.

Posted by: wi_ngo profile link at 01/30/09 8:42 PM  | Reply
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What a fantastic cover. One of my top U2 songs (probably that and "Bad," ironically another heroin song), and this really rekindled my love for it. I'll have to check the album out when it's released.

Posted by: noisysignal profile link at 01/30/09 11:42 PM  | Reply
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Gotta love Garvey and Co. Now if only Bono could convince them to do the theme song for the next bond flick...

Posted by: KJ profile link at 01/31/09 6:38 AM  | Reply
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i've played it 40 times so far

Posted by: raymi at 01/31/09 10:54 AM  | Reply
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wow. no one could have covered this better. maybe lanois. i want to download this.

Posted by: israel at 01/31/09 1:28 PM  | Reply
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This is great...it only goes to prove that U2 is at their most powerful when they practice little sublety. Unlike that 'get yer boots on' swill their hawking at the moment.

Posted by: ohpleez at 01/31/09 10:56 PM  | Reply
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my only detracting comment here is that Garvey could've easily taken this one on in a higher key (instead of sticking with the original), which would have given it a bit more juice. They aced it, though... once that middle breakdown comes in here, it's magic... but I already knew I would love this song, I've enjoyed everything I've heard from this band.

What I REALLY like here is that I've finally read an entire Stereogum post that's been up more than ten minutes and doesn't have any negative comments! Maybe everyone's just scared to dis on a Mercury Prize winner, but the word "douchebag" is amazingly absent here! Well done, hipsternet citizens!

Posted by: agrokrag profile link at 02/07/09 3:05 AM  | Reply
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Elbow are amazing! Great cover.

Posted by: Qwerty102 at 02/08/09 1:17 PM  | Reply
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