Dump
That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?
Shrimper

Dump — aka James McNew, the bassist for Yo La Tengo seems an unlikely candidate to channel Prince. Whereas Prince is darkly handsome, not to mention thin, McNew is pasty, overweight and, well, actually he's not really unhandsome. Yet few would mistake him for His Purple Majesty.

But on That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice? a recent reissue of a 1998 cassette tape composed entirely of Prince covers, McNew makes a case for himself as, if not The Artist in indie rock form, certainly one of his biggest fans.

Fortunately for his listeners, McNew knows Prince's oeuvre extremely well. While he could have covered tunes like "Diamonds and Pearls" and the god-awful "Seven," he's done a good job picking out Prince highlights and even sheds light on such underplayed songs as "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" the B-side to "1999."

Yet "1999" is how McNew launches the album, though his version is a down-tempo, narcoleptic take on the original, with a Stereolabby Farfisa drone and drum machine. There's nary a guitar to be found, and McNew sings in a voice so quiet and hushed it's more believable when he sings "I was dreamin' when I wrote this..."

McNew really hits his stride, though, on "Raspberry Beret." The Purple One's grand synth masterpiece becomes a buzzing guitar-and-handclap anthem, with McNew's whiny nerd voice making the perfect companion to the song's riffs. McNew even has a bit of fun with the lyrics, changing "She wasn't too bright" to "I think she knew that I wasn't too bright," before launching into the familiar, "but I could tell when she kissed me, she knew how to get her kicks."

The album picks up the tempo after that, with solid renditions of "The Beautiful Ones" — in which McNew probably sounds his most Prince-like — and layered, loud-yet-quietly-sung "When U Were Mine." McNew goes country on "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" with great results.

The other classic cover on the album (aside from "Raspberry Beret") is "Pop Life," on which McNew combines drum machine, acoustic guitar and lo-fi electric piano. He multi-tracks the vocals on this song, letting McNew harmonize with McNew, and the off-key harmonics of his offbeat voice work brilliantly. The members of YLT have never been acclaimed for their singing, and McNew is undoubtedly the least talented of the three, yet he transforms this fairly average Prince song into a masterpiece.

In fact, by making the two singles from Around the World in a Day — hardly Prince's most-acclaimed or accessible album — his album's best tracks, McNew pays Prince the ultimate tribute, saying, in effect, that while maybe Prince didn't arrange the songs right the first time around, they're still undeniably great.

Following that philosophy, it's not surprising that McNew largely avoids Purple Rain, covering only "The Beautiful Ones" and staying away from classics like "When Doves Cry," "Baby I'm a Star" and "Let's Go Crazy," not to mention the title track.

The only clunker is "Love Bizarre," which clocks in at an inexplicable 6:54. It's got a clangy cowbell and maraca percussion loop and an ominous, bassy-organ underlying it, which is all fine and good, but the damn song just doesn't go anywhere. And falling as it does right after "Pop Life," it's disheartening.

Nonetheless, it's hard to find an album that doesn't have at least one weak song on it, and given the strength of the rest of the disc, it's hard to stay away. Here's to reissues of "classic" albums nobody heard the first time around.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)