All these questions and more await next week's release of the Dresden Dolls' second full-length CD, Yes, Virginia. The Boston-based piano-and-drums duo*'s self-titled debut saw the birth of "punk cabaret", a blend of Brechtian aesthetic with punk rock spirit. Yes, Virginia takes us farther and faster down that same road, with all the passion and drama of the first album, plus a little more edge.

The themes are the same: love is tempestuous ("Backstabber"), sex is cold ("First Orgasm of the Morning"), and gender roles mingle freely ("Sex Changes"). But Yes, Virginia is actually darker and more serious than the debut. Amanda Palmer's piano lingers longer in the lower registers, and Brian Viglione's drums are miked louder, his rhythms are meaner and more jagged. This is punk cabaret with the emphasis on the latter. It's an album born on the road, in the smokey Euroclubs where the Dolls have found their most receptive audience, and it shows.

The result is an album slightly more complex and less accessible than Dresden Dolls. There are no catchy, kitschy novelty songs like "Coin-Operated Boy," no exuberant, energetic pop like "The Jeep Song." That's not to say that Yes, Virginia won't find commercial success--"Shores of California" and "Sing," the album's first single, might even get some airplay. But the Dresden Dolls aren't turning into No Doubt any time soon. And I can't think of any higher praise than that.

*Think White Stripes without all the Suck.