Mike Doughty - The Flip is Another Honey

  by John Clarkson

published: 25 / 3 / 2013

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Review

It shines through on ‘The Flip is Another Honey’, Mike Doughty’s new covers album, that he must have an eclectic record collection. The former Soul Coughing front man has chosen to reinterpret on it songs from artists as diverse as John Denver, Cheap Trick, Stephen Sondheim, Thin Lizzy, the Stone Roses and French chanteuse Camille. When musicians choose to do a covers LP, it usually finds them stalling for time and suffering from a current lack of new ideas. For Doughty, who is the veteran of five previous five studio solo albums, and who has always put covers into his live sets, it is, however, a natural progression, and has him stretching his trademark quirky idiosyncrasy to new heights. The opening number, ‘Sunshine’, a reworking of John Denver’s ‘Sunshine On My Shoulders’, sets a palette for what is to come. It takes samples of Denver’s crooning original vocals, and then interweaves them with a pulsating acoustic guitar, beat-heavy electronica and a rap from the nasal-voiced Doughty, giving this one-time country classic a hypnotic and surprisingly effective slow funk paint-over. ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’, another Denver number and which was Doughty’s favourite song as a three year old, is possibly the straightest cover on ‘The Flip is Another Honey’, but even here Doughty expands it into a duet, featuring guest performer Roseanne Cash. ‘Southern Girls’ takes Cheap Trick’s hard rock classic and re-jigs it as the sort of solitary guitar indie anthem that Elliott Smith made so effective. On ‘Reach Out’, another more obscure Cheap Trick number, Doughty adds a warbling organ sound and then mashes it up with Josh Wink’s infectious breakbeat hit, ‘Higher State of Consciousness’. ‘Tightrope’ strips down the lyrics on the Stone Roses’ druggy campfire number from their ‘Second Coming’ album to its chorus, before throwing in a rap about Fugazi and former Minor Threat front man Ian Mackaye. Perhaps best of all is Camille’s ‘Ta Douleur’, which sung by Doughty in drawling but perfect French, is removed from its minimalist original and rewritten –complete with cascading piano – as a surging, glorious pop anthem. For all his playing around with these tunes, Mike Doughty always keeps something, although it is often slight, of the originals. One is left with the constant impression, from the buoyant energy and enthusiasm with which he has approached this record, that he has a deep affection for these songs. ‘The Flip is Another Honey’ takes that tiredest of formats, the covers album, and then does unusually different with it.

Track Listing:-

1 Sunshine
2 A Fanfare
3 Jimmy Bell
4 Take Me Home, Country Roads
5 Southern Girls
6 Tightrope
7 Send In The Cowns
8 Running Back
9 Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat
10 Boy + Angel
11 Reach Out / Higher State of
12 Consciousness
13 Ta Douleur
14 Makind
15 Mistress
16 Words

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/mikedoughty
https://twitter.com/Mike_Doughty_
http://www.songkick.com/artists/367320
https://www.youtube.com/user/MikeDough
http://www.mikedoughty.com/