Mike Doughty
The Flip Is Another Honey
Snack Bar/Megaforce Records
Mike Doughty is an album releasing machine. In the past 18 months he has released the impeccable Yes and Also Yes and the best live album of 2012, The Question Jar Show. Now, Doughty has found the time to build an album of covers strangely titled The Flip Is Another Honey (a reference taken from a 1956 Variety review of a Jerry Lee Lewis single, meaning “the b-side is also fantastic.”) Unlike Doughty’s last two releases, however, this one is much more uneven… just like a typical covers album.
There are only a couple of great tracks on this one and the rest are either just okay or flat out disposable. The two instrumentals “A Fanfare” and “Send in the Clowns” are fairly decent, but tally just over a minute combined. One of the best tracks is a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” featuring the brilliant Roseanne Cash. The other is Doveman’s pensive “Boy + Angel.” Doughty’s raspy voice adds gravity to the lyrics, like “Why must the night last until the day that never comes?”
“Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat” is downright scary as Doughty and his musical companion Andrew “Scrap” Livingston cacophonously end the song by yelling the chorus and adding an assortment of random instrumentation.
As an unabashedly huge fan of Mike Doughty, I love the album despite the hits and misses. If you’re looking for an introduction to Doughty however, you’re best going with albums like Yes and Also Yes or Sad Man Happy Man and then working your way into this one.
Mike Doughty: http://www.mikedoughty.com
