Hit and miss
For the most part "Sad Man Happy Man" has quite a mainstream edge, Mike's vocals are quietly confident and he changes his style slightly to suit every track. The album adds a number of different genre's styles to an overall singer-songwriter acoustic feel. The majority of the record is simple tunes but these are tackled by adding flashes of blues, folk, pop, hip hop, Americana and so on (the list could be endless). Sometimes the tracks work and sometimes they don't.
The tracks that do work are usually those with the more straightforward indie-folk leanings like 'Lorna Zauberberg', but very occasionally the mash up style comes together to create a cohesive package in tracks like '(He's Got The ) Whole World (In His Hands)' where a spoken style vocal over basic acoustic guitar creates quite a funky groove. Sometimes when this is beefed up it crashes badly, the quirky little noises behind '(I Keep On) Rising Up' just end up being cheesy and Jack Johnson-esque, which is a shame because the string sound is a nice touch. 'Pleasure On Credit' is also a little cringe worthy, sounding like a pared down Fun Lovin' Criminals track, perhaps it's meant to be ironic, but it still doesn't work.
Some interesting moments and a few really nice songs, Mike Doughty's vocals are great and the variety holds your interest because you're not sure quite what you will get next, but it's a little erratic and doesn't all come together .