Alex Lahey — Rock & Roll Queen (The Subways cover)
Four years ago, Australian singer/songwriter Alex Lahey topped our year-end list with a truly phenomenal cover of Faith Hill’s 1998 hit “This Kiss.” She made the Top 10 again in 2023 singing Mama Cass’s Make Your Own Kind of Music.” At this point, whenever Lahey drops a new cover, we’re immediately interested. Her latest, the b-side to a new single supporting trans rights, tackles indie-rockers The Subways 2005 single “Rock & Roll Queen.” Unlike some of her other covers, Lahey doesn’t change it that much (no need to make the already loud-and-rocking song louder and rockier like “This Kiss”). Still, it rips.
Brad Mehldau ft. Daniel Rossen & Chris Thile — Tomorrow Tomorrow (Elliott Smith cover)
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau is a veteran covering unlikely not-jazz artists. He’s covered Radiohead a bunch of times, Nick Drake a bunch of times, Nirvana, Gillian Welch, Stone Temple Pilots, Oasis. It’s a long, long list. His latest is a full-album tribute the songs of Elliott Smith. This early single features Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear and Chris Thile of Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers.
Chappell Roan — Barracuda (Heart cover)
chappell roan performing a cover of ‘barracuda’ by heart at primavera sound barcelona pic.twitter.com/SX3RVmP9m5
— best of chappell roan (@bestofchappell) June 7, 2025
At Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival, this month, Chappell Roan roared through a cover of Heart’s “Barracuda.” It’s not the first time she’s covered the song, which she’s described as one of her favorites, in concert. But thanks to Amazon Music filming the whole show, and Roan’s amazing Medieval stage set, it’s a better video than I’ve seen before. A must-watch.
Ezra Furman — I Need The Angel (Alex Walton cover)
Ezra Furman closes her new album with a cover of this lesser-known songwriter. Turns out there’s a story behind it. An Atlantic profile explains:
The final song of Goodbye Small Head, “I Need the Angel,” is a garage-rock freak-out that sees Furman screaming for heavenly guidance. It’s a cover of a song by Alex Walton, a 25-year-old trans musician who was once a fan of Furman’s and struck up a friendship with her after the two exchanged messages online. When I spoke with Walton by videochat, she told me she was still processing the fact that her onetime role model—someone whose visibility as a trans person helped inspire her own career—had covered one of her songs. I asked her what Furman was like. “There’s this unerring optimism in her that’s infectious,” Walton replied.
Kieran Hebden & William Tyler — If I Had a Boat (Lyle Lovett cover)
The lead single from electronic musician Four Tet and acoustic picker Willian Tyler’s unexpected joint album is—of all things—a marathon-length Lyle Lovett cover. Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden explained: “We discussed references for an album and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fennesz, and AM oldies radio stations came up. But the main influence was found when we discovered a shared deep connection to ‘80s American country and folk music – artists like Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, and Joe Ely…A cover of the Lyle Lovett song, ‘If I Had a Boat’ was the most literal pull from this ’80s country sound. We also recorded long improvisations around chords, patterns and tones from songs we remember from growing up. The Lyle Lovett cover ended up over 11 minutes long.”
Lykke Li — Love Hurts (The Everly Brothers cover)
A few weeks ago, Lykke Li dropped a surprise covers EP titled, simply, Covers. It includes three songs: Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms,” and, my favorite, this Twin Peaks-channelling version of The Everly Brothers’ “Love Hurts.”
The Silver Snails — Pretty (Ugly Before) (Elliott Smith cover)
Psych-rock husband-and-wife duo The Silver Snails tackled a relative deep cut for their new Elliott Smith cover. Turns out they knew each other as teenagers (I assume that’s them together on the cover photo). The band’s Lucas Ward said: “Elliott Smith and I met in High School and he inspired me to become a songwriter. Pretty (Ugly Before) is my favorite song by him. Not only are the melody, chords, and rhythm highly original, the lyrics bring me to tears. John Lennon said that a songwriter’s job is to put feelings into music so that others can feel them too. Elliott was the best that I know at doing this, which is why his music continues to touch so many people.”
Sleater-Kinney — Kids In America (Kim Wilde cover)
John Mulaney’s Netflix show Everybody’s Live is the gift that keeps on giving for music fans. He reunited Metz, put Phish in Seinfeld costumes, and brought Randy Newman back to the spotlight. On the final episode of the season, Sleater-Kinney came out to perform “Kids in America” (the episode’s theme was Teens). Best of all: They’re on a set inspired by the classic Ramones movie Rock and Roll High School.
Stigma — Already Dead (Rancid cover)
Hardcore veterans Agnostic Front’s guitarist Vinnie Stigma is turning 70 this year, but he’s not slowing down. His new solo album, The Outlaw Vinnie Stigma, out on Gogol Bordello’s new record label, veers away from hardcover though, and includes this Spaghetti Western-inspired cover of Rancid’s “Already Dead.”
The Best of the Rest
After Ours — Congratulations (MGMT cover)
The Amity Affliction — Holiday (Turnstile cover)
Fanny Lumsden — Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye cover)
Hauntu — Velouria (Pixies cover)
Mavis Staples — Godspeed (Frank Ocean cover)
Paul Weller — I Started a Joke (Bee Gees cover)
Pavement — Witchitai-To (Jim Pepper cover)
Pop Evil — Don’t You (Forget About Me) (Simple Minds cover)
Sarah Meth — I Know It’s Over (The Smiths cover)
Sombr — Ribs (Lorde cover)
Still Wave — Fortnight (Taylor Swift cover)
Van Plating — Huggin’ Thin Air (Doug Sahm cover)
Check out previous months’ best covers lists.
