Thom Yorke covers Miracle Legion for a Mark Mulcahy benefit album

Thom Yorke's cover of Miracle Legion's “All For The Best” opens Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, a benefit album for the band's former singer. The track can be heard this week. Yorke strips the song down to sparse, stuttering electronics until a badly detuned guitar rips into it. Drowned In Sound says it sounds like nothing on The Eraser. His brother Andy Yorke sings backing vocals, the album's publicist told the same site. Unbelievable Truth, Andy's old band, cover the title song in a recording made some years ago.

Miracle Legion were a Connecticut band signed to Rough Trade in the 1980s, and “All For The Best” first came out on their first full-length album, Surprise Surprise Surprise, in 1987. Mulcahy went on to lead Polaris. Uncut says REM and Radiohead have long championed his songs.

The 21-track CD is out on 14 September in Britain on Mezzotint and on 29 September in America on Shout! Factory. Twenty more covers will be sold as downloads only.

Mulcahy's wife Melissa died suddenly last September. All the money from the album goes to him, to help him keep making music while he brings up their three-year-old twin daughters.

Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, the CD