We recently spoke to Yeasayer’s Chris Keating about his new PolyDukes EP with Elias Abid. PolyDukes contains a cover of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up,” which the world can hear now that the EP has been released. It sounds arty and vaguely ominous, the way you might expect from a former member of Yeasayer.

In the interview, Keating had this to say about the cover:

I remember singing along to this song when I was six years old while being driven to school. My dad was like, “You know this song?” It was the first song that I knew that my parents didn’t. I covered her whole first album — all 10 songs, even the filler, which I turned into these other completely weird versions. But “Straight Up” is a jam. That is an awesome song. I wanted to recontextualize it, change the chords around and make it more moody.

There’s also the “opposites attract” element with that video with the cat. That was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I was like, “She’s talking to a rapping cat!” As a kid, it was kind of sexy in that Cool World, Roger Rabbit way. You see Jessica Rabbit and you’re like, “I’m super turned on by Jessica Rabbit, who’s a cartoon.” You’re just coming into your sexuality, so cartoons are turning you on.

Listen below.