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SKITTISH/ROCKITY ROLL
(ATO)
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There’s an old adage that most songwriters have only one song in them, and some of those artists seem destined to write that song over and over again. Former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty is one of those songwriters: Soul Coughing’s ’90s output was mostly hip-hop-influenced indie serenades about cities and mourning sung in his scatter-step drawl over sampled loops from old movies and a muscular crack rhythm section. As a group, they almost never missed their mark. So it’s no surprise that this solo release, a two-disc set of tracks formerly available as Internet-only downloads, is almost flawless. Doughty’s musical backdrop has evolved: gone are the samples, with guitars (especially on the mostly acoustic Skittish disc) taking their place front and center along with his expressive, often repetitive vocals. He spouts lines like "Sounds so wrong/But I need to fit the will/To get along." (Or something like that — sometimes he winds syllables so tightly that it’s hard to tell.) Those lines become mantras, and they can inspire subconscious hum-alongs. This is never truer than on the anti-war "Move On (Bloom like the Sunlight in My Song)," which is captured live at jam fest Bonnaroo, and on his cover of Mary J. Blige’s "Real Love," which like fellow indie icon Lou Barlow’s recent cover of Ratt’s "Round and Round" is rendered almost unrecognizable, with a bare-bones arrangement. All of this is just a tease for a "real" solo album Doughty has planned for a spring release. With any luck, he’ll still be reaching for that perfect song, because it’s always a pleasure to listen to him try.
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