No, Virginia, The Dresden Dolls’ third full-length studio album, contains no surprises. As The Dolls continue to make music, it is becoming more and more apparent that, when lead singer and pianist Amanda Palmer dubbed her band a “Brechtian Punk Cabaret Duo” in 2001, she was effectively creating a new genre, but she was also allowing herself very little space to evolve. The intriguingly off-kilter combination of overwrought drama with hard-hitting notes from a grand piano has certainly earned the Dolls a bit of a cult following – and has also helped them produce several good tunes – but it’s hard not to wonder when the band is going to add something new to their staling gimmicks.
Admittedly, No, Virginia is a compilation of b-sides and unreleased tracks from the Yes, Virginia sessions, and so nothing new should be expected from this album (the title obviously doesn’t do much in that direction, either). These songs were kept off the last album mostly because they didn’t flow as a group, but, according to Palmer, they were nonetheless complete and successful tracks, and can now stand on their own. However, when almost every song features her affected accent (she’s from Boston, but you’d sometimes think she was British) belting out lyrics about outcasts, sex, and depression over a consistently reproduced song structure (“here it calms down and stays simple, here it swells with epic grandeur”), it’s hard not to get the inkling that this is all she and Brian Viglione can do. And that thought has the potential of undermining their otherwise extremely appealing image. “Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner”, an extremely dark and aggressive song, turns into something too obnoxious and much too performed to be the thought-provoking opus it should be. Similarly, the eight-minute long closing track, “Boston”, shows too little variety and too little energy to demand multiple listens.
Whether or not No, Virginia brings anything new to the table, there are some remarkable highlights that could prove to be strong additions to The Dresden Dolls’ repertoire. “Mouse and the Model” features some of the strongest, catchiest lyrics and shouts to come from Palmer’s tattooed head to date, and Viglione backs her up with a powerhouse of rhythms, a punk version of a military drum march. “Night Reconnaissance”, on the other hand, is the most upbeat track on the album. With its strong refrains and hooks, it sounds a lot like a show tune, bringing The Dolls even closer to their self-proclaimed and self-performed genre. No, Virginia, then, is not a remarkable album by The Dolls’ standards, and reveals—perhaps a little too soon—that the band is resting upon its laurels. At the same time, The Dresden Dolls have generated an incredibly novel way of thinking about music and performing within the punk-rock world (and all they had to do was look to tradition), and that alone makes this album worth a listen. Most importantly, they make their music strong and exciting, even if a little too consistently.
