10. JP Harris — Beautiful World (Devo cover)
I confess, when I first listened to JP Harris’s take on “Beautiful World,” I was not expecting to hear the lap steel guitars native to country music. But that’s what we get, a pure-D C&W take on Devo’s new-wave classic. What’s more amazing is, it sounds like that’s how it always should have sounded. Harris gets the song’s irony, but doesn’t make that the song’s focus. He gives the message an easier delivery, which may well add another layer of irony as it takes away the edge. Either way, it’s a beautiful cover. — Patrick Robbins
9. Kacey Musgraves — Three Little Birds (Bob Marley cover)
Listening to Kacey Musgraves’ quiet country cover of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” is a bit like getting a hug from an old friend at a funeral. She sings the refrain “Don’t worry about a thing” with a heavy heart, as if she’s not quite sure she believes the words. But when she reminds us that those “Three little birds” will be there “singing sweet songs,” you know everything will turn out fine. Such is Musgraves power as a singer, she can straddle many emotional planes and mix joy and heartbreak within a song of hope. — Curtis Zimmermann
8. DJ Tunez — Life During Wartime (Talking Heads cover)
Talking Heads were pretty explicit about incorporating African sounds into their music from their third album Fear of Music, if not earlier. This expanded their sound and their backing band; by the time of Stop Making Sense, it was a key element. DJ Tunez is a Nigerian-born, New York-based DJ. His contribution to the tribute album Everyone’s Getting Involved flips this American-African fusion on its head. Whereas the original is an angsty, paranoid vision of post-apocalyptic New York that happens to be very danceable, Tunez’s cover is a laid-back fusion of cool jazz meets Afrobeat. So much of the original is replaced, it’s only really Tunez’s comfortable, easy delivery of the lyrics that tells you what song it is. It sounds as if he really likes this post-apocalyptic landscape. It’s a pretty, left-field cover. — Riley Haas
7. SistaStrings — Girls Ride Horses Too (Alice Randall cover)
In 2024 Alice Randall, who has been active in country music for more than 40 years, published her book Black Country, where she talks of her building her career in an industry that did not always embrace her fully. In the tribute album to her work released at the same time, SistaStrings covered “Girls Ride Horses Too,” a song Randall wrote for Judy Rodman in 1987. Obviously there was a message of inclusion in the original, which this new version fully embraces and enhances. This version sits well within a year of breakthroughs for country music. — Mike Tobyn
6. Water From Your Eyes — Someone Like You (Adele cover)
There is a danger in covering a song like Adele’s “Someone Like You.” Not everyone is the singer she is, so there’s a chance that a cover of it could descend into overly sentimental tripe. It’s the kind of song that needs a powerful voice with taste and an arrangement that doesn’t lean into the sentiment. Well, Water From Your Eyes decided that the way to cover it was to play it as indie pop. And maybe that idea seems jarring, but, the moment you hear it, it makes complete sense: the awkward, indie vocals, the jangling guitar, the picked bass, it’s all just right on the money. There’s even a brief a capella break highlighting Rachel Brown’s untrained voice. — Riley Haas
5. Dolly Parton — Southern Accents (Tom Petty cover)
There’s no need to go into detail as to the whats and whys of what makes Dolly Parton great, but sometimes all the platitudes overshadow the key fact that she is a brilliant songwriter and an amazing interpreter of songs. Her contribution to the 2024 tribute Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty shows those interpretation skills off wonderfully.
“Southern Accents” originally appeared on Petty’s 1985 album of the same name. The song’s an examination of what it means to come from the South. The complicated history contained therein was what made Petty’s original so memorable, and Parton does the exact same thing in her version. Parton called Petty “an iconic artist and important songwriter,” and you can hear the respect and understanding of Petty’s skill throughout the song.
If that wasn’t enough, Parton’s video for the song, which features home movies from both Parton and Petty, opens with Petty’s voice, explaining a little bit about the song’s origins. — Luke Poling
4. Honey Gentry — Mykonos (Fleet Foxes cover)
Honey Gentry is a London-based, Kate Bush-inspired singer-songwriter who’s been making records since 2018 and describes herself sonically as “introspection, nostalgia and being sort of amazed at and weirded out by life.” She proves the ideal performer of the Fleet Foxes’ “Mykonos,” originally an indie-folk masterpiece from 2008 that was all angelic singing, soaring harmonies and mini-epic acoustic drama on the idea of seeking salvation in an exotic, far-off place of spiritual and maybe familial significance. She brings to it a gorgeous dreampop vibe that’s laced in sadness, her voice a breathy and cooing thing that floats over ethereal synth sounds and lush orchestration. In this way, she adds poignancy to that wonderful Robin Pecknold lyric, “a sun to maybe dissipate / shadows of the mess you made,” while making you ruminate, like never before, on the meaning of that linchpin couplet: “Brother you don’t need to turn me away / I was waiting down at the ancient gate.” — Adam Mason
3. Forest Claudette — Can’t Stop (Red Hot Chili Peppers cover)
Spunky drop-the-beat hip hop mixes with slick R&B in this “Can’t Stop” cover. Claudette still brings the rhythmic quality that is essential to the original with the clipped lyric delivery. However, he blends this metronome-like lyrical delivery with more laid-back, smooth background sound. This balance of suave and plucky attitude continues with the instruments: big percussion and dissonant echoes blend into smoother R&B-style grooves. — Sara Stoudt
2. Willie Nelson — The Border (Rodney Crowell cover)
When David Bowie released the album Blackstar in 2016, we were in awe of his continuing genius, so that his passing a couple of days later was even more distressing. In 2024, Willie Nelson took a different route. He is preparing himself and us for the future. Although we have no specific reason to think that we won’t get to enjoy Willie for a few more years, we are inevitably closer to the end of his journey than the start. But his genius is also undimmed.
This year he released two albums of exquisite beauty and poignancy. Last Leaf, its title song in particular, saw Willie facing up to the future, in a world where many of his contemporaries are no longer around. Earlier in the year, his 75th solo studio album also addressed similar themes. Rodney Crowell’s tale of a Border Ranger is rich with allegories as well as the obvious themes, but Willie Nelson finds more. He stands at the desert or river in the knowledge that the people on the other side are not that different, despite the efforts of some to literally demonize them. You can view the journey with optimism as well as a healthy level of fear, meaning that you are not eager to make the crossing but you know that when it comes you will be ready. — Mike Tobyn
1. The Gaslight Anthem — Ocean Eyes (Billie Eilish cover)
Fifteen years ago, The Gaslight Anthem hit #4 on our year-end list with their cover of another pop hit, Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up.” Despite the full-band branding, though, that was basically a Brian Fallon solo performance—and one I was dismayed to read later he didn’t much like. It was done merely as a gimmick for a radio station.
I shouldn’t have been totally surprised, though. The Gaslight Anthem are not a band given to novelty pop covers. They’re more likely to knock out a Clash or Springsteen deep cut—you know, the music they actually listen to. But Fallon is a dad now, which means the music his daughter listens to is the music he listens to, and on a car ride to school, she clued him into Billie Eilish’s “Ocean Eyes.” “I really took to the song,” he said. “Then one day we were talking ideas for a cover with our friends and I said, wouldn’t it be cool to do a heavier version?”
“Heavier” is an understatement. Gone is Eilish and brother Finneas’s spare, skeletal production. This has gone from minimalist to maximalist, loud take-no-prisoners rock and roll complete with hoarse-dude shouting and ample guitar solos. It’s a cover that I liked a lot when I first heard it this summer, but has grown even more on every listen. And it’s nice to know that, this time, he didn’t do it under duress. — Ray Padgett
Don’t miss The Best Cover and Tribute Albums of 2024.
Wow so many great versions Terrific work
Thanks for a fascinating year, gang!
Thanks for this incredible collection.
I would put Ethel Cain’s cover near the top of the list but otherwise great work! This is a wonderful site with fantastic writers. Thank you!