Yes and Also Yes

Prior to the release of his fourth studio album, ex-Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty sent out a press release that highlighted some key points concerning Yes and Also Yes' creation. The tone of the 11-point list, which leaned toward the comedic, but with Doughty’s signature dark wit, dutifully reflected the timbre of Yes and Also Yes' 14 tracks, a solid collection of smart, sardonic, occasionally sweet gems that play out like a career overview. Opening cut and single “Na Na Nothing,” which was supposedly “partially stolen from a song written by Nikki Sixx, Dan Wilson, and Matt Gerrard,” is built off of a clean, winning hook set atop a bed of acoustic guitars and propelled by a thick backbeat that leans hard on '90s alt-pop. Four of the cuts, the sparse “Russell,” the punk-infused “Have at It,” the German-language rave-up “Makelloser Mann,” and the vivid “Telegenic Exes, #1 (Hapless Dancers)” clock in at under two minutes, but Doughty, who “used a capsule of the antidepressant duloxetine as a percussion instrument on some tracks,” infuses real emotion into each, which renders their brevity poignant. Elsewhere, the loose and likeable “Day by Day By” echoes Soul Coughing's winning marriage of deep grooves and beat poetry, the lovely “Holiday (What Do You Want?),” co-written by Dan Wilson and featuring a nice, raw, duet-style harmony from Rosanne Cash, feels like the less intoxicated, younger sibling of the Pogues' classic “Fairytale of New York,” and the Smashmouth-esque “Weird Summer” and “Vegetable,” like nearly everything on this typically fine set of work, sound like future fan favorites and live staples. ~ James Christopher Monger