30. P.O.S. — Why Go
A hip-hop cover of Pearl Jam? Why not? Minneapolis rapper P.O.S. explained: “I was asked if I was interested in covering a Pearl Jam song by MTV2 [for a special tied to a Ten reissue]. I thought it was funny that they wanted to include me, being a rapper and all, but I wanted to take a shot at it. I loved Ten when it came out, rocked the tape till it popped. One of my favorites on it was ‘Why Go.’ None of the bands they asked had picked it yet so I did. I though about reworking the original lyrics into a rap kind of situation, but then I was playing the melody on one of my keyboards and thought it might be more fun to just straight cover it. So I did.” — Ray Padgett
29. Katie Wren — Release
“Release” is not so much a ballad as it is a hymn, the main hymn in fact in the church of Pearl Jam (which is located in whatever venue they happen to be playing). It is their “Amazing Grace” if you will. Seeing an entire arena standing ’til the very back row, singing along at the top of their lungs, is moving enough to charm even the most cynical PJ naysayer. There are references in “Release” to Eddie Vedder’s relationship/non-relationships with his stepfather and blood father but it is truly a big picture song, a universal thing, about acknowledging questions about identity and confusion and pain it’s caused, and moving forward.
It is also home to one of the greatest Eddie Vedder vocals in the entire PJ canon. “Release” is not well-served by whispering. It is built to be shouted, in or out of tune. So if you’re gonna cover it properly, you better be prepared to go all in. Katie Wren doesn’t whisper; she wails. Her love of the song is palpable, and, to be reductive for a second, it feels particularly cool hearing a female vocalist take the reins on a beautifully bombastic PJ big-boy song. And man, does she take them. Wren’s bare-boned version of “Release” is gigantic, authentic and straight-up kicks ass in every way, hallelujah. — Hope Silverman
28. Post Malone — Better Man
When Nirvana reunited for the SNL 50th anniversary show back in February, they had Post Malone in the role of Kurt Cobain. They couldn’t have found a better man: Malone is a jack of all musical trades with a deep affinity for “the Seattle sound.” His album of Nirvana covers is proof positive.
In this live acoustic take on the Pearl Jam hit, Post shows he can channel Eddie Vedder as well as anyone. It’s something more than mimicry–the sense you get here, as with the Nirvana covers, is that Post absorbed the music at a chromosomal level. Though he was not yet born when grunge peaked (Malone was literally in utero when “Better Man” came out), he revives its spirit as if he had been there and lived it. — Tom McDonald
27. Scala & Kolacny Brothers — Let Me Sleep (It’s Christmas Time)
The A-side from Pearl Jam’s 1991 Ten Club Christmas single, “Let Me Sleep (It’s Christmas Time),” is a melancholy holiday song sung from the perspective of what appears to be a homeless person for whom Christmas magic of has long disappeared. Scala is a Belgian girls choir conducted by Stijn Kolacny and arranged and accompanied on piano by his brother Steven Kolacny. Starting in the early 2000s, they decided to move away from the classical repertory and into rock covers, garnering way more fame than would be expected from a Belgian girls’ choir. Their version of the song replaces the Middle Eastern-influenced guitar and percussion with Steven’s piano, and Eddie Vedder’s distinctive growl with girls’ voices, making it pretty, if a little less effective in portraying the sadness of the song. — Jordan Becker
26. Rebecca’s Empire — Alive
“Alive” is a quintessential Pearl Jam song; deep lyrics, emotive vocals, blistering guitar solo and the feeling of a full story told in 3-4 minutes. Will it work as an acoustic song? The band showed it did does during their unreleased Unplugged session, but the intensity and emotion had to stay at a 10. Enter Rebecca’s Empire with their 1995 cover of this legendary song featuring Rebecca Barnard on vocals. Barnard is the motor behind why this song works; backed by ringing, open chords, she channels the words written by Vedder and matches his intensity. Her voice soars and swoops, but always sounds in control and purposeful. The final verse, in particular, really shows off her dynamic ability, bringing in a lot of breathiness to highlight the lyrics. She closes with a rousing final chorus that sends the listener out with goosebumps. It’s a truly beautiful cover done simply but expertly. — Mike Misch
25. The Frogs — Rearviewmirror
So this version of relentlessly awesome, escape-to-freedom anthem and maybe PJ’s poppiest song, “Rearviewmirror” by Wisconsin’s cult queer heroes The Frogs first appeared as the B-Side to PJ’s own version of “Immortality.” To say this cover rivals and maybe surpasses the original in terms of overall beauty would be understatement. I confess that after I heard this version for the first time, the original “Rearviewmirror”, which I truly adored, went right out the freakin’ window. The Frogs (Brothers Jimmy and the late Dennis Flemion) reshape the rock locomotive into a delicately sloppy, and ridiculously gorgeous lo-fi folk ballad. They turn the whole thing upside down and damn, is it beautiful. — Hope Silverman
24. The Blow and Go’s — Habit
Pearl Jam’s catalog has plenty of songs that feel deliberately lofi or even purposefully sloppy. The Blow and Go’s lean into this production on their cover of the already loose “Habit.” The Blow and Go’s version feels straight from the garage, muddy and heavy on the bass equalizer, light on the fidelity and legibility. Their cover makes Pearl Jam’s sound almost glossy by comparison. They shorten the song by quite a bit as they focus on the heavy riff and the repetitive chorus. Their decisions here pay off: this is a great two minutes of cathartic punk in tribute of one of grunge’s greatest. — Mike Misch
23. Jasmine Kennedy — Given to Fly
Singer-songwriter Jasmine Kennedy possesses one of those voices that stops you in your tracks when you hear it. Landing somewhere between Tracy Chapman and Tanita Tikaram on the vocal Richter Scale, it is an instrument of exceptional depth and warmth. Listen in hushed awe as Kennedy magically transforms freeing, surfing, shouting-to-the-sky anthem “Given To Fly” into a freakin’ lullaby. It is high-flying beautiful, oh, oh… — Hope Silverman
22. Coldplay — Nothingman
When Coldplay played Seattle in 2021, the band decided to pay tribute to “one of the bands we fell in love with when were young teenagers in the ’90s.” Chris Martin didn’t sound super confident in the intro, asking people not to upload it onto YouTube. “It’s not going to the best cover version. This is not Adele singing ‘Make You Feel My Love.’ That is not what you are about to see. This is a 44-year-old man remembering how much he fell in love with Pearl Jam in 1991.” Thankfully, his no-YouTube request was ignored. — Ray Padgett
21. Michael Udelson Trio — Black
The little-known Michael Udelson Trio has a knack for lengthy piano-led revamps of ’60s-era jammers like “Whipping Post,” “Riders on the Storm,” and Traffic’s epic “The Low Spark of High-heeled Boys.” But the band’s instrumentals work wonders on ’90s-era indie and metal numbers, like “Enter Sandman” and, best of all, “Black.” I always knew Pearl Jam’s Ten album had some great tracks, but I didn’t count “Black” as one of them. In fact I forgot all about the song until Udelson‘s straightahead interpretation of it; there it was, the stately beauty of “Black” that I missed the first time. I still prefer the cover to the original, but thanks to Udelson and company I now listen to Ten way more often than I used to. — Tom McDonald
