Mike Doughty - songwriter and former frontman of Soul Coughing - has recently released Circles, an album of smoothed-out and remixed classics. On Circles Doughty breathes new life into tunes that were slow-and-creeping (think "Sleepless" and "How Many Cans?") and sucks out excess life from tunes that were hard-and-edgy (think "Monster Man" and "Super Bon Bon"). The result is a pleasingly unified album of Soul Coughing classics. Doughty's voice is as excellent as ever, and he sings the formerly-edgy tunes with such articulation that you will be able to clearly understand those lyrics that were just out-of-reach beneath distortion and hard-hitting drums before. Also, the presence of an upright bass on the album is a nice touch that goes a long way to recreating that warm jazzy low-toned aesthetic that Soul Coughing albums are known for. All in all this is a must have for Soul Coughing / Mike Doughty fans and would not be a bad introduction to newcomers as well, since so many great tunes are represented.