Dump - That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice? (Shrimper, 1998)

J'espère que vous apprécierez l'effort. Dans ma thématique de reprises je cherche à m'éloigner des albums de covers trop prévisibles. Après Henk Hofstede qui rend hommage à Cohen, voici un autre album peu connu qui dépasse lui aussi largement la simple curiosité. Pourtant, au départ c'est loin d'être évident! Dump était le projet récréatif de James McNew, bassiste de Yo La Tengo au civil. Le lien avec Prince ne saute pas aux yeux : McNew est blanc, binoclard, fait plus d'un mètre vingt, et on ne peut pas dire qu'il transpire particulièrement le sexe puisqu'il ressemble surtout à ce qu'il est - le bassiste sympa d'un groupe indé. Pourtant le résultat va vous épater. Si on ne connait pas les versions originales, on ne devinerait même pas qu'il s'agit à la base de chansons de Prince, ça sonne surtout comme du Yo La Tengo à la cool. C'était d'abord sorti en cassette, devenant une espèce de mini-hit underground, avant d'être réédité en CD avec quelques bonus bienvenus.

Dump
That Skinny Motherfucker with the High Voice?
Cassette Shrimper SHR 106 (USA, 1998)
CD Shrimper SHR 106 (USA, 2001)

01. 1999
02. Raspberry Beret
03. Erotic City
04. The Beautiful Ones
05. When U Were Mine
06. How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?
07. Pop Life
08. A Love Bizarre
09. Girls & Boys
10. Dirty Mind
11. An Honest Man
12. Another Lonely Christmas

Note : CD reissue with the same catalog number and additional bonus tracks.
Shrimper has reissued James McNew's self-produced cassette tape of Prince covers and added five additional songs. Featuring a title gleamed from the Black Album track "Bob George" ("Who?/Prince?/Ain't that a bitch?/That skinny motherf*cker with the high voice?"), this album demonstrates McNew's creative and varied approach to both famous and lesser-known songs. "1999" features his understated vocals and Stereolab's Morgane Lhote on Farfisa, "When U Were Mine" features McNew's low-register vocals and his own glistening keyboards, "Pop Life" features him harmonizing off-key with his multi-tracked self, "Dirty Mind" features his ominously echoed vocals, and "The Beautiful Ones" features his attempt to emulate Prince's own vocal style, including a switch to falsetto. McNew tries to transform "Erotic City" into a swaggering indie rock number, but doesn't quite pull it off; his vocals don't quite mesh with the musical backing on "Girls + Boys" and his whispered, portentous interpretation of "A Love Bizarre" is interesting at first but lasts too long. He fares better with an acoustic performance of "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore?" (originally the B-side of Prince's "1999") and a rendition of "An Honest Man" that is somewhat reminiscent of Neil Young and Lambchop. "Raspberry Beret" is propelled by handclaps and reverb-laden guitar to be one of the better tracks on the album; McNew even changes "She wasn't too bright" to "I think she knew that I wasn't too bright," although he keeps the most dubious part of the lyrics ("Built like she was/She had the nerve to ask me/If I planned to do her any harm"). The album's concluding track, "Another Lonely Christmas," provides further evidence that McNew is adept at finding the emotional core of Prince's songs; McNew isn't as good a performer as Prince, of course, but he does find ways to make listeners hear some of the news in new and compelling ways. So while this album isn't flawless, it is definitely more than just a recycling of someone else's songs. (All Music Guide)

[old link is in prison, new link later, maybe]

 (la version originale)

(la reprise)