The Dresden Dolls Take Back 'Yes, Virginia' — 20 Years Later
Twenty years after they turned Boston's basement-and-blackbox scene into an international export, The Dresden Dolls are doing the most Amanda Palmer thing imaginable: reclaiming what's theirs. Out today, "Yes, Virginia…(Tailor's Version)" is a full, note-for-scratch re-recording of the duo's landmark 2006 album — and yes, the pun is doing exactly what you think it's doing.
If "Tailor's Version" rings a bell, it should. Taylor Swift spent the early 2020s re-recording her back catalog as "Taylor's Version" after losing control of her original masters, turning a music-industry ownership fight into a cultural event. Palmer and drummer Brian Viglione — the Brechtian punk-cabaret duo who formed in Boston at the turn of the millennium — have borrowed the playbook and the joke. Their originals lived under a 20-year contract with Roadrunner Records; with that deal finally expired, they went back into the studio to make a version that belongs to them outright.
They didn't phone it in, either. The band cut the new "Yes, Virginia" almost entirely live in late 2025 at Mad Oak Studios, right here in Allston, with producer Benny Grotto. In a fitting bit of continuity, the mix was handled by Paul Kolderie, who engineered the 2006 original — so the record has one foot in each decade by design.
What's changed is the players. "It feels like we're both far more sophisticated and nuanced musicians now," Palmer said of the do-over. "We have more grace as collaborators; we leave more sonic space for one another." Anyone who saw the Dolls white-knuckle their way through these songs in 2006 — Palmer hammering the piano like it owed her money, Viglione a blur of drama and cymbals — knows how much ground that covers. The originals were thrilling partly because they sounded like they might fall apart. The new versions sound like two people who have played these songs ten thousand times and finally trust the silences.
The material, unfortunately, hasn't aged out of relevance. "It was almost unsettling how relevant these lyrics still are in 2026," Palmer noted, "themes of turmoil, powerlessness, the subtle creep of fascism, abortion rights." "Yes, Virginia" was always a political record wearing greasepaint; two decades on, songs like "Sing" and "Backstabber" — the latter released back in June as the first "Tailor's Version" single — hit less like period pieces than like this morning's headlines.
Re-recordings can feel like a cash grab or a lawsuit dressed as an album. This one reads more like a reunion with a purpose. For a band that came up scrappy and self-directed — Palmer famously turned busking and crowdfunding into an entire artistic philosophy — owning the masters isn't a footnote. It's the whole point. The 2006 record helped define an aesthetic that a generation of theater kids and eyeliner-smudged misfits still carry around. Getting to control how that record lives, sounds and sells is the closest thing to justice the music business offers.
The reissue also kicks off a very big year. A world tour launches September 1 in Vienna and winds through Europe, the UK and North America, and Boston — where all of this started — gets a hometown reckoning with shows slated for early December. Consider today's release the overture.
For now, put "Yes, Virginia…(Tailor's Version)" on and play the old one right after. The songs are the same. The stakes feel higher. And the duo that once sounded like they were fighting for their lives now sounds like they've won — and want the receipts to prove it. In Boston, we call that a homecoming worth the twenty-year wait.
Sources: The Dresden Dolls re-record 'Yes, Virginia' — Breaking And Entering; The Dresden Dolls celebrate 20th anniversary — Music-News; Yes, Virginia…(Tailor's Version) — Bandcamp