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Mike Doughty
HAUGHTY MELODIC
(ATO)
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Like many artists of a certain age, Mike Doughty has distanced himself from his dissonant youth as the Beat-poetry-riffing frontman of Soul Coughing, who mixed skronky sax blasts and distorted samples over a funk-driven rhythm section. On his first album with a full band since Soul Coughing’s 1998 El Oso, his focus is melody and craft rather than urban noisescapes. And rather than going soft, he’s gotten sharper. Haughty Melodic may disappoint fans looking for Soul Coughing 2.0, but beneath the cleaner production lies the wry wordplay and wit that made that band a favorite of the horn-rimmed set. Soul Coughing’s lyrics, moreover, were often just a rhythmic element in the mix; here they stand front and center. The new Doughty can fit nicely on Dave Matthews’s ATO imprint even as his dark thoughts ("Like a soap star in anguish, shrill but bland/When your white Lexus comes . . . Try to feel nothing on command") and thematic winks (name-dropping James Van Der Beek) keep him off the middle of the road favored by label mate David Gray. (Mike Doughty headlines this Saturday, May 7, downstairs at the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call 617-864-EAST.)
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