VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Help”; Go! Discs/London (***...

VARIOUS ARTISTS, “Help”; Go! Discs/London (*** 1/2)

The strongest benefit collection since 1985’s “Sun City”? Could be. This instant album--recorded and released in England all in one week--brings together many of Britain’s top pop acts to aid Bosnian children.

For Americans intrigued by the new surge of British pop, it’s a solid, 20-track sampler of the cream of British rock (Blur, Oasis) and rave/trip-hop (Massive Attack, Portishead and Orbital). On any terms, it’s an impeccable collection.

Opening with Oasis--joined by Johnny Depp--singing about how “the dreams we have as children fade away” and closing with the same band’s Noel Gallagher joining Paul Weller and Paul McCartney on the Beatles’ “Come Together,” this is symbolically and literally an album of hope rising from despair.

Even seemingly frivolous selections fit that theme (Sinead O’Connor’s haunting version of “Ode to Billie Joe,” Manic Street Preachers’ winningly earnest “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”). Other highlights include Suede’s version of Elvis Costello’s anti-war “Shipbuilding” and Neneh Cherry & Trout’s urgent new “1, 2, 3, 4, 5.”

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).