Mike Doughty

The first few bites of Golden Delicious are almost enough to make you throw away the whole apple. But get past the nasty bits — the first four tracks — and the rest of the disc lives up to its title, beginning with a new version of "27 Jennifers" that transforms the brittle drum-machine funk of the original to an organic, groovy swing, on through "I Got the Drop on You," whose minimal guitar and vocal arrangement provides the perfect conduit for the song's stark, emotional power, and "Wednesday (No Se Apoye)," possibly Doughty's best song ever, a deliberate and moody cut graced with an elegantly balanced arrangement. The rest of the material is strong, and even the first three songs could be salvaged to some degree with a bit of judicious sequencing. After the overproduced and sluggish Haughty Melodic, this album marks a solid return to form for Doughty and a promising direction for the future.