Mike Doughty, Yes and Also Yes (SNACK BAR Records, 2011)

The appealingly enigmatic Mike Doughty cranks out albums at a fairly steady clip.  This can be a mixed blessing, of course, as his output is notoriously uneven.  Then again, if he wasn't at least interesting, I wouldn't keep checking in on his latest efforts. His new album Yes and Also Yes, released this past summer, is a tad more upbeat and plugged in than his usual work. Once again, though, Doughty manages to be both compelling and confounding.

Doughty generally has a very distinctive style of folk rock, driven primarily by his acoustic guitar.  About half of Yes and Also Yes follows that style, but Doughty goes electric on a few songs and adds some programming as well, most obviously on "The Huffer and the Cutter."  As usual, though, whether or not you like Yes and Also Yes depends on how much you like Doughty's stream of consciousness lyrics and can tolerate the inconsistency that often comes with it.  Sometimes the surrealism works brilliantly, like on the punkishly short "Have At It."  Other times, like on "Makelosa Mann," you're left shaking your head.  Overall, there's a healthy amount of quality here.  "Na Na Nothing" is a solid opener, "Holiday (What Do You Want?)" is a very nice duet with Roseanne Cash, and "Weird Summer" is a prescient look at the political attitude currently gripping Doughty's adopted home of New York City.

He's up, he's down, and he's equal parts impressive and frustrating, but Mike Doughty is never dull.  Like most of his other albums, Yes and Also Yes hits the mark often enough to justify a few listens.

Overall grade: B

reviewed by Scott

"Na Na Nothing"

Mike Doughty, Sad Man Happy Man (ATO Records, 2009)

New York resident Mike Doughty has been something of an enigmatic figure. The former Soul Coughing singer/guitarist can be very good when he wants, to which plenty of songs on his 2005 CD Haughty Melodic can attest. Consistency is not one of his strengths, though. His 2008 album, Golden Delicious, was muddled and messy. He bounced back fairly quickly this past year, though, with a new album called Sad Man Happy Man that generally sees him back in good form.

For this album Doughty scaled back the arrangements a bit, focusing a bit more on his acoustic guitar. Most of the songs have bass and drums, and some feature a cello played by Doughty's long-time bassist Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, but that's mostly it. As usual, the lyrics tend towards spontaneity and stream-of-consciousness, often with allusions to other people's songs. His rap on "(He's Got The) Whole World (In His Hands)" typifies his style. But for some reason the style works considerably better this time around than it did on Golden Delicious. The song "(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)" is particularly strong, even if the title is a bit too parenthetical. Doughty's guitar playing has noticeably improved, too, and Doughty maintains a strong energy level throughout the album.

I suppose you could argue that Mike Doughty should take more time making his albums, focusing on his best songwriting ideas and letting them develop more fully while discarding the weaker ideas, and then his albums would be more consistently strong. That just doesn't seem to be how he operates, though. He is what he is, but sometimes that translates into some good music. Thankfully, Sad Man Happy Man has enough good music to justify the purchase.

Overall grade: B+

reviewed by Scott

"(You Should Be) Doubly (Gratified)"

Mike Doughty, Golden Delicious (ATA Records, 2008)

New Yorker Mike Doughty first made a name for himself singing and playing guitar in the eccentric jazz/rock band Soul Coughing. That band broke up in 2000, after which Doughty spent several years getting his solo career off the ground. A couple of his homemade recordings eventually got the attention of Dave Matthews, who signed Doughty to his ATO label. The first result of this pairing was the solid 2005 album Haughty Melodic. Starting with the single "Looking at the World from the Bottom of a Well," Haughty Melodic was full of witty and insightful songs.

Regrettably, Doughty's new album Golden Delicious fails to approach the same standard. Doughty instead comes across as a tired songwriter fresh out of good ideas. The single "27 Jennifers" is decent enough, but it's actually a re-recording of an older song of Doughty's, and several songs on Haughty Melodic were better. Otherwise, too much of the album seems lyrically forced, at least in the few cases when the choruses have actual words and weren't borrowed wholesale from some place else. Doughty's singing style has always incorporated an improvised, sort of hip hop variant of scat singing. In the past this had a sort of quirky charm that worked for him in general, but on Golden Delicious it just sounds overused and clichéd. And while I agree with the sentiments of the politically charged opening song "Fort Hood," which deals with people's indifference to what's going on in Iraq, the appropriation of the chorus of "Let the Sunshine In" from the musical/movie Hair didn't strike me as being inspired as much as too cute by half. The only lyric that caught my attention comes on the song "Like a Luminous Girl," when he sings about meeting somebody at the station in Ronkonkoma. While I can't help wondering who he knows that lives out my way, the reference to my home town wasn't enough to keep Golden Delicious afloat for me.

I'd still strongly recommend Haughty Melodic to to people interested in Mike Doughty's music. Golden Delicious, by unfortunate contrast, just finds Doughty at a loss for inspiration.

Overall grade: C+

reviewed by Scott