RIYL: Soul Coughing, Beck, Cake
The press kit pegs Sad Man Happy Man as a back-to-basics return to form for Mike Doughty – and sort of intimates that this move was prompted by negative fan reaction to 2008’s Golden Delicious – but unless you’re one of the world’s most hardcore Doughty supporters, you aren’t liable to notice much of a difference between Sad and Golden, or, for that matter, 2005’s Haughty Melodic. The arrangements are acoustic-based, and most of them are more stripped down than much of what he’s done in the last few years, but the two most immediately identifiable ingredients of any Doughty song are his warm buzzsaw of a voice and his love of inane, infinitely repeatable phrases, and both of them are in plentiful supply here. Doughty’s lyrics (or the parts of them that make sense, anyway) have never shied away from bleak themes, and the same holds true here: Sad Man Happy Man’s tracks detail relationship problems (“Diane”), drug addiction (“Lord Lord”), and our current financial woes (“Pleasure on Credit”), all shrouded in the same deceptively goofy arrangements his fans have come to know and love.
It is, in short, a Mike Doughty record – and whether that thought fills you with anticipation or dread, none of these songs will do anything to change your mind. Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, though, they’re mighty easy to sing along with. (ATO 2009)
San Francisco quintet the New Up abandoned the album format with 2008’s Broken Machine EP, the first in a series of three EPs the band began working on with producer Jaimeson Durr (Dan the Automator, Chickenfoot). Better Off, the second EP in the series, picks up where Broken Machine left off stylistically, while songs like opener “Dear Life” and the title track get some extra breathing room with looser, more swinging drums and percussion than before. While all five of the EP’s songs are solid, well-crafted tunes, the title track in particular turns out to be the real earworm on the disc. With a useful “be thankful for what you got” type of philosophy, a powerful vocal from Emily Pitcher, an unforgettable chorus and cherry-on-top flute melody from Hawk West, “Better Off” stands out as a formidable rocker and perhaps the best song in the band’s catalog to date. While it may overshadow the other four tracks on the EP, the remaining tunes nonetheless hold their own and maintain the New Up’s trend of favoring quality over quantity. (The New Up 2009)
