The Portland-based Dandy Warhols have just announced a compilation record, pulling together some of the covers that in the past have ended up as b-sides, tribute albums and soundtracks. To accompany the announcement, the band released a newly-recorded cover of the Violent Femmes‘ classic “Kiss Off.” Continue reading »
Follow all our Best of 2025 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.
Last year’s unexpected theme was Tom Petty covers. For no obvious reason, he popped up again and again on our 2024 year-end list. And whaddya know, Tom’s back this year, with two more Petty covers on our list. This year, however, he is not the most-covered artist on our list.
That’s a tie between two artists, one extremely of-the-moment, one timeless. With three covers apiece, Chappell Roan and Neil Young share the most-best-covered crown. (Artists with two covers apiece this year, in addition to Petty, are Gillian Welch, John Prine, and—this one’s surprising—Nelly Furtado!)
Spoiler alert: None of those appears in the number-one position. Number one covers an artist who I don’t think has ever appeared on one of our year-end lists. But don’t skip ahead. There are 49 equally (well, almost) as good covers to get through first, spanning genres and sounds and eras and ages. Here we go.
Cover art by Hope Silverman
Waxahatchee (aka Katie Crutchfield) is an admitted Taylor Swift fan who has in the past covered Swift’s “But Daddy, I Love Him” in concert. And a few weeks ago in Kansas City, Crutchfield took to the stage as part of Jason Sudeikis’ Thundergong! benefit. Continue reading »
Chrissie Hynde has been a rock star for more than fifty years. The Pretenders have not been together quite that long, but Hynde was already making her name as a girl about town and rock-star-in-waiting in London. She has lived the life full-time for all of that period. It is a surprise, then, that she does not fully appreciate the credit that has accrued with that history, and how people still want to hear what she has to say.
Supporting their tenth Album in 2023, The Pretenders initially booked themselves into smaller venues, before it became clear that they had underestimated the love that the world had for her and the band. Eventually the tour went so well that a live album was made and released. Did Hynde not think she was in the class of National Treasures that could call on her friends to make a duets album? The story is that a friend had to remind her that it was an opportunity, if not a duty, to do so. Consider Duets Special an opportunity/duty fulfilled.
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DEVO’s cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” is infamous for how aggressively weird it is. But Mick Jagger reportedly loved it and their performance of the cover on Saturday Night Live made their name. Perhaps Nashville punks Snooper – whom we last heard covering DEVO – are hoping for some kind of similar notoriety. As they have covered a song that’s just as famous as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in a manner that calls to mind both DEVO’s cover and their overall approach. Continue reading »
In anticipation of their upcoming fall tour, nu metal band P.O.D. have released a cover that you may not expect: their take on The Beatles‘ “Don’t Let Me Down.” And while in the abstract that might sound like oil and water, their version, while certainly in their style, sticks pretty close to the Lennon-written original from the Let It Be sessions. Continue reading »