"No, Virginia" by the Dresden Dolls on Roadrunner Records- Out now

 The Dresden Dolls are purveyors of self-professed “Brechtian punk cabaret,” a style of music based on German Weimar-style cabaret era from the ’20s and ’30s. Concerts by the duo (singer/pianist/lyricist Amanda Palmer and drummer Brian Viglione) are usually a circus, filled with an entourage of odd folks dressed up in the audience, playing mime, juggling, or doing other strange tricks. Palmer and Viglione will dress up in cabaret-style clothing and paint their faces white as part of the performance.

Palmer is a gifted storyteller, painting pictures of teens messed up and/or just misunderstood, suffering well-known angst of a drug culture full of cliques, and people performing self-mutilation. Her songs are often autobiographical and can be extremely personal.

  “No Virginia” is a sort of companion piece for songs left over from 2006’s “Yes Virginia,” with b-sides and songs played from their concerts. Part of the Dolls’ cabaret style is to put on a “show” on the record; to sing about things that are shocking to elicit a certain dramatic response. A slice of those organic feelings are evident on “Dear Jenny”: “Boys wear overcoats in heat like this to keep themselves from showing/Girls fill out prescriptions for the tricks that keep their hearts from growing.”

 “Night Reconnaisance” continues that theme, as she romps sarcastically on the piano, thinking back to those fun high school days. “Think you’re a poet a folksinger poseur nah-oh/A volleyball player you’ve got to be kidding us all” Palmer’s piano-pounding melodies are almost always married perfectly with the beat of Viglione’s crashing drums and cymbals.

It’s easy to figure out that her high school years must have been very isolating. But she’s still exorcising those demons three albums into the Dresden Dolls. It can make one wonder when she will be able to move on.

  Besides the teen factor, many Dolls songs describe rape, sex, death, or some kind of injustice. A feeling throughout “No Virginia” is an undeniable sense that something is wrong, that someone must have a hidden agenda and as the song progresses, things get darker, the person falls down their rabbit hole and sometimes they don’t make it out. “Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner” says it all.

There’s definitely a dichotomoy on “No Virginia”; some songs on the cd are so deep you can’t find your way out, and some can be so transparent you walk right through them. The Dolls work better when they stick with the creepy side of life.

  Her voice is usually unsophisticated and raw, but whatever might be lacking is replaced by anger, insistence, and pain. She starts off with a whisper and sometimes ends by yelling. Her talent is her delivery of the lyrics, which helps the listener interpret what is going on. The fact that there’s so much agony is not a problem, but what can be an issue is when Palmer becomes so self-involved that making a connection is sometimes impossible.

While “The Mouse and the Model” is one of the most engaging and chilling on the release, it’s difficult to decipher her lyrics. It’s difficult to get close to many of the songs other than with the melody, because the lyrics are so abstract. “The Gardener” fares better, and draws you in to hear her soft lyrics about a group of people trying to control another. Her piano melodies are catchy and dramatic. She pounds on the piano, then plays the keys delicately. “The Gardener” is easier to visualize than “Mouse.”

  “Sorry Bunch,” about a tight group of friends, does not quite work; it’s like their anthem song of the cd, like the crappy high school party that she references. But that’s as far as it goes. It hearkens back to “The Jeep Song” from their self-titled debut, a sappy love song which didn’t work either.

  They do an interesting, happier spin on the Psychedelic Furs’ “Pretty in Pink”. It’s easy to see why they would be drawn to that song, since it’s about being an outcast (recall the movie of the same name), where actress Molly Ringwald eventually comes out a swan in her pink dress at the prom.

 Unlike Ringwald, The Dresden Dolls have not been kissed by their prince, but they’re not meant to be. The two are still living in the land of negativity, where everything that glistens is black.