Only a handful of songs from this two-disc set of Dylan covers turn up in Todd Haynes’ excellent meditation on Dylan (and celebrity, which seem more closely related than I would have thought before the movie), I’m Not There. That leaves a whiff of “Marketing” on the album that it can’t quite escape, even though it’s all well done. Calexico backs half of the artists here—their highlight coming when My Morning Jacket’s Jim James sings a beautifully mournful “Goin’ to Acapulco” (and in the movie, it’s James and Calexico on stage performing it)—and a band that includes Nels Cline, Tom Verlaine, John Medeski and Tony Garnier back a host of others.

 

The least faithful interpretations are the most satisfying, making the tracks by Sonic Youth, Sufjan Stevens, Antony & the Johnsons and Yo La Tengo the clear winners (the Yo La Tengo tracks featuring Buckwheat Zydeco on Hammond B3 organ). After all, part of the fun of a cover is hearing artists find something new in the material. Since Dylan has been attempting radical covers of his own songs for years, there’s nothing for Eddie Vedder, Willie Nelson, Jeff Tweedy, Charlotte Gainsbourg or the army of A-list talent to discover in his songs that he hasn’t already found.