Instant Karma: The Amnesty Int'l Campaign to Save Darfur

[LMP]

If you don't know what this is, it's basically 30 different artists covering John Lennon tracks to raise money for the Darfur situation. I downloaded some of the tracks off of the album from iTunes, and the ones I got were really good:

R.E.M.'s "#9 Dream"
U2's "Instant Karma"
The Flaming Lips' "(Just Like) Starting Over"
Regina Spektor's "Real Love"
Snow Patrol's "Isolation"
The Postal Service's "Grow Old with Me"
Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison's "Gimme Some Truth"
Black Eyed Peas' "Power to the People"

there's some good songs in this set, and some real clunkers, but it's for charity.

 

[Justin24]

If you order the CD off Warner Brothers they throw in a seperate CD with an additional 6 tracks. here is the information. http://www.instantkarma.org/imagine/

Josh Groban and Maroon 5 are some of the ones on the extra cd.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm definitely going to buy this CD. There's some crap on there (Black Eyed Peas? Horrors!), but some of it looks really great.

 

[LMP]

I normally don't like the Black Eyed Peas either, but their cover is actually pretty good.

Avril Lavigne does Imagine.

Read that last sentence again without gouging your eyes out.

 

[corianderstem]

I imagine myself skipping the Avril track.

Nothing against her, but I'm just so sick of that song. I did hear Christina Aguilera's "Mother" and quite liked that.

 

[Zoots]

Yeah I'm gonna get this one too I think. Love U2, REM and Green Day on it already!

 

[arw]

I bought it today. You'll be surprised at how good some of the songs are by artists you normally don't like. Not a huge Christina fan but I really love her cover of Mother. It's all really good. I've only had a chance to listen to it once but I'm looking forward to spending more time with it.

 

[LMP]

Mother is a great song anyway

 

[U2inUtah]

Love U2 and Duran Duran's version of Instant Karma

(although I still think the best cover of the song was done by Midnight Oil )

Green Day and REM are pretty good too, and I'm liking Jack Johnson's Imagine much more than Avril's.

 

[LemonMelon]

As a Flaming Lips fan, I must say that their cover sucked. Wayne's voice sounds more cracked than usual, it's an incredibly boring rendition, and they do nothing new with it, really. I was expecting some really interesting effects or a bizarre guitar solo, but received nothing of the sort.

U2's Instant Karma is serviceable.
Aguliera's version of Mother is excellent.
Green Day didn't completely embarrass themselves.
REM's #9 Dream is fun.

And it's all for charity!

 

[LMP]

the guitar is mixed way too loud on the F'lips song, and it is missing that F'lips vibe like you said LM.

 

[powerhour24]

Are any of the other 11 tracks worth it on the deluxe iTunes version? I was intrigued when I noticed the name Gavin Rossdale on it.

 

[powerhour24]

#9 Dream, it's great to have all of R.E.M. together even for one track.

 

[BonosLil'Pal94]

Listened to some of it today because my mom did it. I listened to about 1 line of Avril's track and then skipped it I thought it was all really good, it's just hard to re-make songs by one of the greatest songwriter/musicians in history

 

[alanah]

Christina Aguilera's cover of "Mother" is very very good, I really like it!

 

[Irishteen]

I'm seriously considering getting it, lots of those songs sound like they could be great

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

 

[LMP]

So I buy songs off this album, and because of some iTunes malfunction, they didn't bill me.

Cruel irony, eh?

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

I've only heard bits of u2's "Instant Karma," but it sure sounds like Bono has been gargling nails and bourbon. I'm not normally one to harp on Bono's vocals. That said, I do like it. The gravelly sound works for the song, which was definitely a more raw vocal from Lennon anyway. I also give them kudos for actually sounding like U2 at times in the cover, rather than the relatively straight cover of "Beat on the Brat" that sounded like the Ramones featuring Bono. Again, I liked it well enough, but this is a nice balance between U2 and the material.

 

[Lila64]

Perused some of the disc. When I saw Avril Lavigne = Imagine, I indeed wanted to gouge my eyes out I was playing the CD, and as soon as the song came on Maddy pushed the skip button pretty quickly. To me, it's just an uncoverable song. It's so beautiful and simple just the way it is. There can be no better version, IMHO. {Jack Johnson is on this CD doing Imagine as well}. I do think I have Midnight Oil's version on my computer. I will have to check, as they are another band I


U2's Instant Karma has a reggae-ish vibe to it. Shine on!
REM's song seemed to just keep going and going.

Will be checking it out some more in the coming week. I don't think it's stellar, but a few good songs here and there.

 

[powerhour24]

So I buy songs off this album, and because of some iTunes malfunction, they didn't bill me.

Cruel irony, eh?

Very much so, but for me iTunes always takes like 3 days to bill me so maybe they still will.

 

[angelordevil]

So I buy songs off this album, and because of some iTunes malfunction, they didn't bill me.

Cruel irony, eh?

Very! Hope they get that straightened out, or it really defeats the purpose. Thanks for the thread, LMP...I had no idea this album was coming. I'll definitely be buying it The timing of this is funny for me...I've been on a Lennon kick as of late, and just thinking how the world could use a big hit of him right now.

Green Day's take on Working Class Hero is fantastic...heard it on the radio today. As I was listening, I kept thinking how, if all the planets were aligned, Pink Floyd would do an absolutely killer version of this song. The lyrics remind me of The Wall.

Also, speaking as a biased fan, I think there's a big omission without a Pearl Jam/Eddie Vedder song...they do an excellent version of Gimme Some Truth.

 

[Lila64]

just realized that - no Pearl Jam!

 

[LMP]

An Arcade Fire version of Isolation

Regina Spektor's cover of Real Love is my favorite song so far

 

[LemonMelon]

just realized that - no Pearl Jam!

Pearl Jam doing Cold Turkey would be awesome.

 

[powerhour24]

True no PJ, but weren't all of these made specifically for this, not just a compilation of previously existing covers.

 

[Bono's shades]

It was OK. I skipped some of the tracks (Arvil, Black-Eyed Peas). I was kind of disappointed in the U2 version of Instant Karma. It was OK but it wasn't spectacular like the version of Maggie's Farm they used to do on the Amnesty International tour in 1986.

I was excited about R.E.M. doing #9 Dream, but that was kind of a let down too.

My favorite track was Green Day's cover of Working Class Hero. I think it was the perfect choice for that band and they managed to stay true to the spirit of the original while putting their own signature on it.

 

[arw]

I really like hearing a different perspective on John's songs. I wasn't sure I'd like any of this, including Instant Karma by U2. I hated Working Class Hero by Green Day the first time I heard it. Those two songs have always been my favorite Lennon solo songs so it was hard to listen to someone else cover them. I enjoyed U2's version of it during Vertigo and was able to catch it live once. I just have a problem when I listen to any of his solo stuff that I always want to skip over to Working Class Hero and Instant Karma. I'm finding myself doing that now with the covers so I haven't listened to the rest as much as I wanted to.

I haven't bothered to listen to Imagine. It's to the point now that I absolutely despise that song and can't listen to it at all so I doubt I'd be able to get into a cover of it. It's just so over played.

 

[asr]

John Lennon was not a 'working class hero'.

He was a MIDDLE CLASS PHONY!

 

[UnforgettableLemon]

John Lennon was not a 'working class hero'.

He was a MIDDLE CLASS PHONY!

irony