In addition to unreleased material, Bruce Springsteen's latest album, High Hopes (out next week), finds him reinterpreting songs from early in his career. The title track, for example, was originally written for a 1996 EP and "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was of course recorded for Springsteen's 1995 album of the same name.

I appreciate any new Bruce album, but we didn't really need his help on this front. People have been reinterpreting his music ever since his first album. So below are the 10 best covers of Springsteen songs. Some might say a few of these actually improve on the originals. My level of Springsteen fandom won't allow me to endorse that statement. Don't worry, Bruce: These aren't better. They're just different.

Plus: Listen to some of the songs on Esquire Spotify here or scroll down.

10. Tegan and Sara, "Dancing in the Dark"

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Normally I would say that stripped-down covers are as overdone as acoustic renditions of rap songs or punk versions of just about anything. But this works so well that I can even forgive Tegan and Sara for not including the pivotal "hey baby" at the end.

9. Kurt Vile, "Downbound Train"

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Vile brings his nasal, reverb-soaked vocals, and a grungy, Neil Young sound to this Born in the USA track. Still, he stays so true to the original melody of Springsteen's performance that it doesn't feel like he's completely redoing the track, but rather only adding new layers.

8. Rage Against the Machine, "The Ghost of Tom Joad"

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High Hopes includes a new version of this song that features Rage guitarist Tom Morello, who has also recorded a cover of the track. But Rage's version from Renegades remains the seminal take, trading the original's sadness for abject fury.

7. Richie Havens, "Streets of Philadelphia"

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Havens, whose version of "Tombstone Blues" is one of the best Bob Dylan covers around, seems to know how to loosen up other artists' songs and draw out a new sound from them. Here he doesn't completely revamp Springsteen's elegiac original, but by making it a bit rough around the edges, he makes it his own.

6. Ani DiFranco, "Used Cars"

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This song from Nebraska is about a young child promising herself that she'll escape her family's poverty. Listening to Springsteen's original, that perspective can be lost on you, but DiFranco's distant, high-pitched vocal immediately brings it to the fore and makes the punch of the chorus ("When the lottery I win/I ain't ever gonna ride in a used car again") land all the harder.

5. Johnny Cash, "Johnny 99"

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If you know the chilling original, it's off-putting to hear Cash's upbeat take. But much of the best country music is about taking disturbing and heartbreaking stories and putting a cheerful gloss on them, and in that respect Cash only discovered the song's untapped potential.

4. Cowboy Junkies, "State Trooper"

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Taking the opposite approach to Johnny Cash, the Cowboy Junkies take a bleak song and only make it bleaker. But the minimalist, heroin-daze sound does a great job of conjuring the empty freeways described in the lyrics.

3. David Bowie, "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City"

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It would seem that Bowie was a big fan of Springsteen's debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, since he also recorded a cover of "Growing Up." Both are fantastic, but "Saint in the City" stands out for how Bowie injects his own style into Springsteen's rambling, wordy lyrics. The bursts of falsetto toward the end particularly show how much fun he is having with the song.

2. Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, "Talk to Me"

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The Jukes have long been associated with the E Street Band. Steve Van Zandt played with Southside Johnny in the '70s, and E Street drummer Max Weinberg can be heard on this recording from 1978. So if this song, originally meant for Darkness on the Edge of Town, doesn't veer drastically from the normal E Street sound, it does help emphasize Springsteen's R&B and bar-band roots.

1. The Band, "Atlantic City"

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Of all the songs on Nebraska, "Atlantic City" is the one that most demands a bigger sound. The Band's version from 1993's Jericho goes in that direction, but it's this live version that really nails it. The chorus of "Atlantic City" is one of the prime examples of Springsteen's tug of war between hope and desperation. If his version of "Atlantic City" emphasizes the latter, The Band's brings out a bit more of the former.

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