If ever a cause needed highlighting, it’s the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, which in the recent words of Goal’s John O’Shea "the international community has all but abandoned". It certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by the music community, if this superstar-heavy double helping of John Lennon covers is anything to go by. At 28 tracks, the Amnesty-sponsored project takes a comprehensive look at the ex-Beatle’s solo canon, throwing up plenty of surprises.
Kicking off the whole affair, U2 play it pretty straight on the opening title-track, ‘Instant Karma’ (the first of no less than three versions here) with Bono’s voice straining passionately on the, “we all shine on” part; Lennon’s mid-‘70s hit ‘#9 Dream’ seems tailor-made for REM, with Peter Buck’s jangly guitar and Michael Stipe’s melancholy vocals making it a highlight. Meanwhile, Snow Patrol tackle the dreamy, hypnotic and relatively obscure Plastic Ono Band track ‘Isolation’ with brilliant results.
Christina Aguilera’s unexpectedly angry reading of ‘Mother’ (appropriately enough, since she’s about to become one!) is yet another nice surprise while, backed by just electric piano, Corrine Bailey Rae gets to the heart of ‘I’m Losing You’.
Of the other big names, Green Day acquit themselves nicely on a muscular reading of ‘Working Class Hero’, while The Cure’s ‘Love’ sounds just as you would expect from the erstwhile Goth superstars. On the other hand, Aerosmith’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’ – a collaboration with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars – is almost unrecognisable as coming from the stadium rockers.
Several songs are duplicated – Avril Lavigne and Jack Johnson’s respective approaches on ‘Imagine’ couldn’t be more different, one a straight take, the other a more folksy busk. Other highlights include Jackson Brown’s gorgeous ‘Oh My Love’ and Youssou N’Dour’s plaintive ‘Jealous Guy’, while Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison (sons of Bob and George) give it loads on Lennon’s polemic ‘Gimme Some Truth'.
With some exceptions (Duran Duran’s ‘Instant Karma’ and A-Ha’s ‘#9 Dream’) disc two seems more experimental in approach. Jewish reggae star Matisyahu, not surprisingly, reggaefies ‘Watching The Wheels’, while the wonderful Postal Service – that inspired tie-up between Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello – triumph on a blips ‘n’ beats version of ‘Grow Old With Me’. Meanwhile, Flaming Lips’ typically skewed ‘Just Like Starting Over’ is all acoustic guitar, mellotron washes and reverb-laden vocals – and it’s brilliant! Also featured are Black Eyed Peas (‘Power To The People’) Ben Harper (‘Beautiful Boy’) Lenny Kravitz (‘Cold Turkey’) while the set closes with Regina Spektor’s sparse take on ‘Real Love’.
Well worth checking out then, with hardly a weak track among them. Whether it has the desired impact, we can only hope.