Watch Miley Cyrus Cover Pearl Jam’s ‘Just Breathe’ on ‘MTV Unplugged’
Miley Cyrus has covered Pearl Jam in the colorful pop star's continued quest to pair her unmistakable vocals with songs from other corners of music's diverse canon.
This time, she utilized the tune "Just Breathe," a late-era Pearl Jam hit from the grunge group's 2009 album, Backspacer. With a masked backing band dubbed the Social Distancers, Cyrus faithfully delivered the acoustic number as part of her recently revived Backyard Sessions for MTV Unplugged.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this post.
The Pearl Jam selection wasn't the only music history that Miley tapped for her Unplugged set, though. She also covered the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane," Nico's "These Days," the Cardigans' "Communication" and Britney Spears' "Gimme More" during the session. However, as Stereogum pointed out, the "Just Breathe" performance vid was the first to hit YouTube on Wednesday (Oct. 21).
Still, rock covers from Cyrus aren't all that surprising anymore. She previously covered Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters," and she once made a whole album — 2015's Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz — with the Flaming Lips.
So, of course, it makes sense that the onetime Hannah Montana star is now also working on a full album of Metallica covers.
Cyrus started doing her Backyard Sessions back in 2012, resuming the series first in 2015 and again this year. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, such performance videos have become many fans' closest facsimile of a live gig, as large, in-person concerts remain mostly nixed in many areas.
Miley Cyrus Covers Pearl Jam's "Just Breathe"
See Pearl Jam in Most Streamed Spotify Songs for 66 Rock + Metal Artists