Flak Magazine: Review of Soul Coughing's Lust in Phaze, 06-05-02

Throughout the '90s, Soul Coughing made some of the most plainly accessible music to come out of car stereos since ... well, that's a hard sentence to finish. Soul Coughing didn't sound like anyone. The band featured an upright bass as a pop instrument. They popped and rattled like no other funky acousto-troupe could. They were like a new, irreverent acquaintance, someone you met through someone else, someone who you wanted to know better but always thought there'd be more time.

But that time ran out in 2000, when the band split ways. In their wake, they left three albums, each filled with the pop-tainted-jazz and Beat-inspired fuzz-poetry they first became known for in their native New York. Fronted by poet-cum-music-writer-cum-guitarist Mike Doughty (a k a Doughty and M. Doughty), the band strove to capture the essence of jazz, folk, poetry, hip-hop and whatever else made them want to get up and jump.

Soul Coughing's recently released compilation, Lust In Phaze: The Greatest Hits of Soul Coughing, shows a slice of the band's progression from high-speed street poet jazz/pop masters to solid songwriters who made some of their best music in the throes of hating each other. But Lust isn't so much a greatest hits album as it is the Polaroid that defines the band members' life together. Because as a greatest hits compilation, it fails.

Of course, there are the rarities, sort of. "Unmarked Helicopters," a track culled from the ill-fated "X-Files" compilation Songs in the Key of X, is a synth-poppy departure from the band's regular upright-bass- and drum-driven sound. The introduction of the "X-Files" theme at the fade out will be jarring to even the most committed fan. "Buddha Rhubarb Butter," a lost track from around the time of 1994's Ruby Vroom, is enjoyable, but leaves no doubt as to why the nonsensical drum ditty was left off in the first place. And the Propellerheads' remix of "Super Bon Bon" is needless fodder, a vagary of kitchen sink production that could just as well have been left out.

While the catchy radio hits are here, including "Super Bon Bon," "Soundtrack To Mary" and "Circles," fans will be surprised to learn that some key songs have been left out. "Soft Serve," from Irresistible Bliss comes to mind. So does "16 Horses," from the "X-Files" movie soundtrack.

Instead, such tracks as the annoying-but-God-it-gets-in-your-head "Bus To Beelzebub," the beautifully incomprehensible "Paint" and the aforementioned "Unmarked Helicopters" got added to the mix. The result is like viewing a roughly painted watercolor: The beauty lies in the jagged strokes.

The liner notes alone are worth the price of admission. Doughty systematically gives us a rundown of his thoughts on each song, as well as its origins and flaws. "Rolling," for example, extols the virtues of the drug ecstasy, while "Bus To Beelzebub" is centered around a sample from a classic Warner Bros. tune. "True Dreams of Wichita" is a paean of in-jokes to a real ex-lover who ran away with a bandmate. "St. Louise is Listening" is full of shrouded references to silent movie star Louise Brooks, whom Doughty dubs his "patron saint." And the girl's voice who opens "Janine"? Even if you've never heard the song, the explanation's worth it.

Again, don't expect a greatest-hits package just because it says "greatest hits" on the front. It's just more unwieldy than, say, Soul Coughing's Super Special Picks, or Soul Coughing: These Songs Define Us. While it's a great introduction to the band, it's not a hastily thrown together amalgam of band X's radio singles. Instead, expect an album you can play through from beginning to end, one that can stand on its own — the way a "great" album should be.

— Matthew Chabe (mchabe at hotmail dot com)