Mike Doughty Even among more traditional arrangements on Doughty's latest release, "Golden Delicious" (especially lead single "27 Jennifers," with its '80s-sounding keyboards), Doughty puts words together in unusual and compelling ways, rhyming "easy" with "Japanese-y" in the melancholy "I Got the Drop on You" and repeating words until their meanings have disintegrated away, leaving only a collection of syllables and sounds as in "Put It Down." Glimmers of Doughty's Soul Coughing approach still shine through; he sing-speaks phrases on "Navigating by the Stars at Night" as if they were tongue-twisters he has to concentrate on getting right. But the beauty of "Golden Delicious" is that he is not openly trying to duplicate his old band's sound. -- Catherine P. Lewis
.: Originally published: The Washington Post: 4 April 2008, Page WE10
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