Sean Penn is a strange and self-righteous man with a troubling history, but he still apparently has enough juice to will a musical event into being. Penn recently directed a new movie, a downbeat crime drama called Flag Day, and that film’s soundtrack features one titan of early-’90s alt-rock radio taking on another. On the Flag Day soundtrack, Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder sings a faithful, reverent cover of “Drive,” the classic opening track from R.E.M.’s beloved 1992 album Automatic For The People.

As it happens, there’s a whole lot of Eddie Vedder on the Flag Day soundtrack. The album features nine new songs that feature some kind of contribution from Vedder. Those songs are mostly collaborations with Glen Hansard, the Irish rocker who used to be in the Swell Season and the Frames, and who also won the Best Original Song Oscar for co-writing “Falling Slowly” from Once. (Did you guys know Glen Hansard was the guitarist in The Commitments? I just found that out.) Some of those songs are collaborations with Eddie’s 17-year-old daughter Olivia Vedder, and we already posted her debut single “My Father’s Daughter.”

Previous Eddie Vedder collaborator Chan Marshall is also all over the Flag Day soundtrack. The album features four new songs from Cat Power, including a cover of KK’s “I Think Of Angels.” Here’s the cover of “Drive”:

And here’s the stream of the entire Flag Day soundtrack:

The Flag Day soundtrack is out now on Seattle Surf Co./Republic. This might be a nice moment to remind you that Stereogum once put together an Automatic For The People tribute compilation.