“Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono.”

I’m convinced one of the reasons the aliens refuse to make contact is our species’ hot takes about Yoko Ono. Any sufficiently advanced civilization would certainly appreciate Ono’s boundary-breaking work, and the fact that she’s blamed for everything from the breakup of the Beatles to ruining art speaks volumes for our society’s inability to think outside the box. But a new collection of Yoko Ono covers from some of the biggest names in alternative music suggests our species is learning.

Curated by Death Cab for Cutie frontman Benjamin Gibbard, Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono is set to drop on Ono’s 89th birthday. The collection features covers from Ono’s musical catalog by a who’s who of margin-walkers and boundary-breakers including David Byrne, The Flaming Lips and Yo La Tengo.

The album begins with Sharon Van Etten’s rendition of ‘Toy Boat,” off of Ono’s 1981 album, Season of Glass. Some listeners will likely conclude that Van Etten’s tender piano ballad is a far cry from the diabolical yodeling they imagine to be Ono’s vocal style. In fact, Van Etten’s cover captures the innocent synth-pop sophistication of the original.

“I’m waiting for a boat to help me out of here/ Waiting for a boat to help me out/ The boat that reached my shore was a toy boat,” Van Etten sings.

L.A. violinist and singer Brittney Denise Parks, better known as Sudan Archives, delivers a chilling performance of Ono’s 1973 deep cut “Dogtown.” Where Ono’s original chugs with acoustic guitar similar to PJ Harvey (but 20 years earlier), this new version feels bird-on-a-wire taut with a sparse string arrangement.

Much of the music, like Yoko Ono’s life, is haunted by the murder of her husband, John Lennon. Japanese Breakfast, the experimental pop act led by musician, author and director Michelle Zauner, offers up a piano ballad version of “Nobody Sees Me Like Yo Do.” Zauner’s delivery is a little less pitchy than Ono’s original, but the song’s simple and direct tenderness is amplified by the quiet arrangement.

“I see your face with a trace of life/ Being a wife and a woman/ If I ever hurt you, please, remember/ I wanted you to be happy/ No one can see me like you do/ No one can see you like I do,” Zauner sings.

The nearness of Lennon’s tragic death, which occurred less than six months before the release of Season of Grass, manages to linger in the song, despite the ensuing four decades and another artist’s musical interpretation.

Ocean Child follows a pair of Yoko Ono remix albums, Yes, I’m A Witch, and Yes, I’m A Witch Too, released in 2007 and 2016, respectively. On these albums, invited artists including Cat Power, Polyphonic Spree and DJ Spooky remixed Ono’s songs with everything from new instrumentation to studio trickery.

Clearly, many of today’s most popular musicians, particularly those known for sonic experimentation, are aware of the debt they owe Yoko Ono. Now, if more of us could get over the silly caricature that’s been drawn of Ono as some pretentious plum-loving performance artist and band-wrecker, and recognize her as a trailblazing badass that pulled John Lennon, maybe the aliens will conclude we’ve wised up and finally pay us a visit.

Follow writer David Gill at Twitter.com/songotaku.