Dec 172015
 

Follow all our Best of 2015 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

CoverMeBestSongs2015

I didn’t realize it until I began laying out our post, but this year’s Best Cover Songs list shares quite a few artists with last year’s. And some that showed up here the year before that. Jack White’s on his fourth appearance. And Jason Isbell and Hot Chip not only both reappear from last year, but have moved up in the rankings.

Though we’re always on the lookout for the new (and to be sure, there are plenty of first-timers here too), the number of repeat honorees illustrates how covering a song is a skill just like any other. The relative few artists who have mastered it can probably deliver worthy covers again and again.

How a great cover happens is something I’ve been thinking a lot about this year as I’ve been writing a series of articles diving deep into the creation of iconic cover songs through history (I posted two of them online, and the rest are being turned into a book). In every case the artist had just the right amount of reverence for the original song: honoring its intention without simply aping it. It’s a fine line, and one even otherwise able musicians can’t always walk. Plenty of iconic people don’t make good cover artists (I’d nominate U2 as an example: some revelatory covers of the band, but not a lot by them). Given the skill involved, perhaps it’s no surprise that someone who can do a good cover once can do it again.

So, to longtime readers, you will see some familiar names below. But you’ll also see a lot of new names, and they’re names you should remember. If the past is any guide, you may well see them again next year, and the year after that.

Click on over to page two to begin our countdown, and thanks for reading.

– Ray Padgett, Editor in Chief
(Illustration by Sarah Parkinson)

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Dec 142011
 

As you are surely aware, all week we are meticulously counting down the Best Cover Songs of 2011. While we do that list, though, other publications have been putting out their own best songs list. There is no firm consensus for #1, but we are seeing many of the same tracks pop up over and over again. So we tossed together a set of the best free covers of the best songs of the year. Continue reading »

Sep 212011
 

Ever since its release last May, EMA’s debut Past Life Martyred Saints has been a sleeper indie hit (a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork undoubtedly helped the buzz). We’ve already seen her earn the hype as a performer in her thrashing cover of Nirvana’s “Endless, Nameless.” Now we can celebrate her as a songwriter with our first cover of Erika M. Anderson. Continue reading »

Aug 032011
 

Last month, SPIN released their free tribute to Nirvana’s Nevermind. The final song on the album was EMA covering “Endless, Nameless.” Originally a hidden track on the album, “Endless, Nameless” finds Erika M. Anderson thrashing around in a shoegaze-grunge storm. That storm was all sonic, of course…until now. As her new music video shows, that thrashing was, in fact, quite literal. Continue reading »

Jul 192011
 

As we mentioned yesterday, SPIN magazine celebrates the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind this year with a special issue featuring interviews, recollections, and, best of all, a full-album tribute. Dare we say it, it’s even better than the one we did. Continue reading »