Seka Sister/Volume 2

Seka/Sister is a marathon collection of 22 songs from a plethora of artists (both well known and obscure) in aid of a women and children's refuge in Croatia.

The mood is largely pensive, thought-provoking tales of political apathy (Mary Chapin Carpenter's gem, 'Stones In The Road') sidling alongside more personal pleas from the heart (Townes van Zandt's 'If I Needed You') and collective feminist will articulated so effortlessly by Rosie Flores ('We'll Survive').

Only Tom Waits could get away with such maudlin choruses as 'Why wasn't God watching/Why wasn't God listening/Why wasn't God there for Georgia Lee?' Of course it's magnificent, despite or because of that uncanny Waitsean ability to strip the wheat from the chaff as though he was picking apples off a tree.

And the list goes on. Billy Bragg, Kelly Willis and Black 47, along with lesser known figues such as Hitchin' Post, Neko Case and The Sadies. Loudon Wainwright III makes for an ironic addition, having forged quite a reputation for himself for his blithe misogyny of the 70's (remember that baldheaded attack on the ex-Mrs. Wainwright, Kate McGarrigle, 'Who knows, maybe someday you'll find/a cure for menstruation?'). And oddly, it's his contribution, 'Pretty Good Day', that's a standout, as personal and yet political an account of a day in the life as you'll manage to find this side of a Richard Ford novel.

And yet, and yet: Seka suffers from the usual jagged edges and schizoid shifts that bedevil any eclectic collection: no sooner are you settling into a groove than you're catapulted into another sphere altogether.

Seka comes top of the class for Moral Authority 101. Artistic coherence, on the other hand, sees it slide down the rungs of the ladder . Still, worthy of our pennies, if not our critical plaudits.