Yeah, NoE

The Artist

The Running Gags are an indie rock outfit whose music sits at the intersection of scrappy garage energy and sharper, more considered songwriting. Their sound leans on interlocking guitars, live-feeling drums, and vocals that favor character and phrasing over polish, which gives their records a loose, human quality. They belong to a lineage of bands that treat the album as a place to try things: shifting tempos, unexpected turns, a willingness to be funny one moment and plainspoken the next. Yeah, No arrives as a statement of that identity, a record where the band's push-and-pull dynamic feels fully worked out. It's the kind of release that rewards fans who like a band still figuring things out in public.

The Album

Yeah, No plays like a record made quickly and confidently, with arrangements that keep the room sound and performance quirks intact rather than smoothing them away. The production favors a live-band presentation, letting guitars bleed into each other and vocals sit right up front. Across twelve tracks, the band moves between hooky, uptempo cuts and slower, more introspective turns without losing thread. Thematically, the album chews on indecision, self-deception, and the small absurdities of trying to be a person, which the title itself telegraphs. It's a record about hedging, about the space between yes and no, and about what happens when you stall long enough that the choice makes itself.

Listen For

Guitar interplay. Pay attention to how the two guitar parts talk to each other across the record, sometimes locking in tight and sometimes deliberately pulling in different directions. "Let Me See" and "Too Loud" are good places to hear this in action.

The rhythm section. The drums and bass do a lot of the emotional work here, shifting feel mid-song rather than staying locked to a single groove. Listen for how "Wait Now Dont Wait" moves through gears.

Track sequencing. The album is front-loaded with hooks and gets stranger and more spacious as it moves toward the closer "Omkaj". Notice how "Just a Tree" and "Puddles" reset the pacing.

Vocal delivery. The lead vocals lean on conversational phrasing, closer to talking-with-melody than belting. "For Crying Out Loud" and "Mr. Invincible" show off the range of that approach.

Lyrical throughlines. Themes of stalling, second-guessing, and half-committing run across the record, from the title track through "Ms. Direction" and "Just a Rush". The wordplay in song titles hints at how much fun the band has with ambivalence.