The title of this album is slightly misleading; this is not noise. It is 23 best-selling international recording artists performing 20 of – legendary human rights activist – John Lennon’s solo songs.

What this album does however hope to achieve is aiding Amnesty International to “make some noise” for the human rights atrocities taking place in the war torn Darfur. Amnesty International has a longstanding tradition of activism through music and is using songs donated by Yoko Ono to encourage awareness and activism around the crisis in Sudan.

The double album features artists from a variety of genres, spanning; rock, pop, hip-hop and country, with each artist lending their own distinctive sound.

Christina Aguilera’s delivers the moving Mother with her trademark strength and power. Avril Lavigne introduces a new side to the skatergirl with her performance of the iconic Imagine, a track which in my opinion which shouldn’t be attempted by just any artist as it is not often that the cover can even compare to the original, but Avril delivers with an emotional and tender performance. Youssou n’Dour demonstrates his remarkable range with his memorable performance of one of the most covered Lennon songs; Jealous Guy.

I loved the whole album, but really appreciated Green Day’s rendition of Lennon’s overtly political song Working Class Hero, a song which they are said to have chosen because of its themes of alienation, class and social status. Billy Armstrong performs the lyrics of this song with an underlying hint of sarcasm; resonating the truth of the lyrics. Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool brings their enthusiastic Green Day style, without losing the sensitivity of the song. It is Green Day, but a more refined, grown up version, making the song their own.

Another song I couldn’t stop listening to was Ben Harper’s cover of Beautiful Boy. John wrote this song for his only son with Yoko Ono, Sean, and it contains one of John’s most famous quotes; “life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans”. Ben, a father of two, offers Beautiful Boy with the love a father, delivered with his soothing and melodic style.

Another song that stood out for me on this album was Big & Rich’s version of Nobody Told Me. Nobody Told Me was the first single from John and Yoko’s album Milk and Honey, and was the last song of John’s to reach the Top 10 on Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100.The American country duo’s cover is upbeat and colourful with a twang of, well, um… country.

Also listen out for a-ha’s eclectic cover of #9 Dream – the song is simply psychedelic.

Like I said before, the only noise on this album is what it is creating around Darfur. The artists’ covers of Lennon’s classics are personalised without sounding completely different. “John would have been proud of this album. Proud that a new generation of artists is speaking and singing out for human rights. Proud that they are singing his songs…” Yoko Ono writes in the CD booklet. This CD is an excellent item to add to any collection, one which you can buy to enjoy with a good karma.