More Songs from the Mellow Struggle

More Songs From the Mellow Struggle reveals a band waking from the hazy murk of a lo-fi past, ready to share their own very personal epiphanies. Swearing At Motorists shares as much musically with Buffalo Springfield and Muswell Hillbilly-era Kinks as with later curators of bad vibes, Richard Hell and Alex Chilton. There's also an early '80s new wave canon that seems to have deeply affected Doughman in his song structuring, attitude, and vocal delivery --indeed you can hear remnants of Joe Jackson, the Cars, and what was once perhaps a vicious Elvis Costello fixation. But this album is anything but retro. Rather it's a very contemporary look at disillusionment in the modern auto age, about lacking something so integral that there is nothing left to do but drive. Yes, this is a heavy record. Even the insane hooks and anthemic choruses can't hide that this is a record about coping with the loss and abandonment of something very near and dear to you.