Haughty Melodic
Finally, the world is treated to Mike Doughty's first "full-band" album sinceSoul Coughingdisbanded in 1998. Doughty has clearly morphed from hyperactive ironic hipster to a world-class songwriter with lyrics that are funny ("I want to run away and join the office") and self-deprecating but never emo ("All my life I've been slow and senseless/Not struck dumb I'm just dumb that's all"). If you're looking for faults you can always find them, and to be sure some of the playing is overly "pro" and not as funky as M.D. live. The perfect pedal steel touches throughout are actually icing on this cake, and the drummer dude fromN.E.R.D.'s metronomic bashing's hardly a bummer. The songs on the album will be familiar to fans who've seen him live, and thanks toHaughtybeing recorded over a long stretch of time (the songs themselves honed that way too) it has a "greatest hits" feel to it: all killer, no filler.--Mike McGonigal