VARIOUS ARTISTS

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International

[Shangri-La]

Featuring 76 Bob Dylan covers from more than 80 artists to celebrate Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary, the four-disc Chimes of Freedom is a compilation whose intimidating breadth manages to bring unexpected acts like Ke$ha (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”) and Miley Cyrus (“You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”) into the already vast company of singers who have made Dylan’s songs their own. But what’s most striking about this set is the wide range of Dylan music; there are gems here from all eras of his long and unpredictable career. Many tribute albums are content to focus on the obvious, but the artists on Chimes of Freedom reach deep into the catalog for tunes like “License to Kill” (Elvis Costello), “Property of Jesus” (Sinéad O’Connor), “Political World” (Carolina Chocolate Drops) and “Blind Willie McTell” (Tom Morello, in his folk-singer guise as the Nightwatchman). –Steve Matteo