lambchops's Full Review: Irresistible Bliss by Soul Coughing
On occassion, I look for something a little bit funky to pop into my stereo. Well, I was given the pleasure a few years ago to hear the song "Super Bon Bon" from Soul Coughing. After having heard the song, I decided that the album was a must-have. "Irresistible Bliss' is the second full-length album from the now defunct Soul Coughing. It's sad that the group disbanded following the release of the third album "El Oso." Here's a quick sort of dedication to Soul Coughing and the man that led the group to gold...M. Doughty.
So you say you've never heard anything from Soul Coughing? Well, I'd question that. You may have heard this song at one point in time, or you may have caught the equally catchy song from "El Oso" entitle "Circles." Any way you look at it, "Irresistible Bliss" is a creative and interesting album. It's a cross at most times between a kind of funk, Brit pop, and techno. An interesting blend to say the least.
1. SUPER BON BON
The first song that introduced me to Soul Coughing is also pretty representative of their overall sound. It's fast, driving, and quick to interest listeners. It's also segways into something that I really like...an almost hard rock (I said almost remember) chorus in which M. Doughty chants the title to the song. I really enjoy this song to say the least. It was the most successful of this mildly successful album.
2. SOFT SERVE
This is a softer sounding song than the first. It's interesting, but lacks much of the noise that I enjoy in music. I tend to like my tracks loud...sometimes unneccesarily loud in fact. Anyway, there are some guitars that introduce the song followed by some interesting groovalicious funk. Doughty's voice is smooth. He doesn't have a really wonderful voice, just interesting. Not the best song, but like I mentioned earlier it's a bit too soft to me to followup the loud "Super Bon Bon."
3. WHITE GIRL
Talk about a song with a sense of humor. It's comedy is reminiscent of the parts of Cake's "Fashion Nugget" that I enjoy. The lyrics are seemingly just thrown together. Actually what it seems to be is that the lyrics were put together because they sounded funny together. "Innocent fram girl raised by the aliens..." Yup, that's an actual line from the song that's repeated more than once. A moderately okay song, but still doesn't hold up in the light of my favorite of the album.
4. SOUNDTRACK TO MARY
The song starts with just a simple guitar and Doughty's oddly monotonous voice. It's a simple song as compared to the ones I've already spoken of. It's driving as a result of the strong backing guitars and occasional drums and synth keyboard. Doughty also plays the guitar (these are his licks) while bandmate Yuval Gabay provides the drums as with this song. The keyboards are provided by Mark de gli Antoni.
5. LAZYBONES
What's that? A fiddle?! Of course! That's another feature of Soul Coughing that makes their sound more original than many others thanks to the fourth band member Sebastian Steinberg. This song is good. One of the best on the album if you ask me. It's not fast, rather the pace is rather plodding. It's catchy, the music rather simple, but Doughty's voice is unquestionable interesting and sounds more as though he's a storyteller at times rather than the lead vocalist. Like I said....it's good.
6. 4 OUT OF 5
This tune starts out with a bang. You can tell immediately that this is a song unlike any of the others. It starts out with a very funky, catchy lyric. In fact, it sounds like something that could possible be part of a twisted version of Schoolhouse Rocks. "And 9 and 9 therefore 18, 18 and 18 therefore 36." I really do think it's a fun track and comes off as such. It's not profound. Just fun. That's all I ask of many songs.
7. PAINT
Great beginning. This song starts out with more groovy beats sort of like "Super Bon Bon." Lots of drums & cymbals with a funky guitar and Doughty's pleading, almost monotonous lyrics. It's got an almost bizarre combination of these elements with a synth keyboard reminiscent of the most mechanical pop hits of the early 1980's. I love it..."I know you're dumb as paint."
8. DISSEMINATED
Whoa. That's sure a lot of keyboard. The drums are very fast and Doughty's voice equals the speed of the other elements of the song. It still is simple...the song is sparse but still remains somehow more complicated than just a funky anthem as it is intended. Soul Coughing again proves themselves competent. A great, interesting song. "The average men got disseminated..."
9. COLLAPSE
Beginning with an almost country-western sounding guitar, the drums equal the odd tempo of the guitar. But, what makes this song much more than a parody of a genre is the keyboard and Doughty's lyrics and voice that are very much in contrast to the tempo of the rest of the song. It's interesting. In fact, it doesn't seem as though the quality of the album decreases as we near the end of this album. Very fortunate. Also, the drums are very important to this song...more so than many other tracks on this album.
10. SLEEPLESS
This song is very quiet and very soft, remaining without lyrics for the first half a minute. It's a funky song. One that is very much in contrast to the other songs on this album. This is something that Soul Coughing is very good at. They are very diverse in their songs and their music. This one has a relatively slow tempo, but the lyrics remain interest....despite a relatively plain kind of instrumentation.
11. THE IDIOT KINGS
A great fast song that also features the fiddle very prominently. It's happy, upbeat, yet Doughty's voice remains relatively monotonous. "I've seen a half a zillion girls and haven't spoken to a single of them..." Just a good-natured romp with a defninite homage to the country western genre. Great song, one of my favorite of the album.
12. HOW MANY CANS?
This sounds almost like spoken word in the beginning with a slow backing band. It's interesting, but not really *that* interesting. In fact, it's well-done, but remains less than intersting to me in comparison to some of the better songs earlier. It's just a bit too boring for me and my brief attention span. I'd have to say that it's the worst song of the entire album...not bad in comparison to some other bands, but just the worst here.
___________________________
This 1996 album was and is still innovative. It's a shame that the band is no longer together, but to be quite honest it M. Doughty is as creative as he seems to be here, there is a long future ahead for him. This is a good album. One in which deserved more attention that it received. The best song, as I mentioned above is also my favorite, "Super Bon Bon." It's my hope that maybe one person that's missed this album, but really likes interesting and different trippy music will enjoy this one. It's a fun album with not much that's too profound. Just fun, an interesting, and innovative.
I would have given this album like 3.5 stars, but with the Epinions system of rating I will give it 4 stars. Great album, but Soul Coughing's first album "Ruby Vroom" and last "El Oso" are equally interesting and are equally diverse. Just a promising band to say the least.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
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