Petey USA’s third album, The Yips, is supposed to take place at a dive bar, with each song representing a different table of patrons engaged in a heart-to-heart talk. This setting is apropos for Petey, as an artist and social media personality who does comedy sketches. Petey’s lyrics are funny, thoughtful, heartfelt, and always captivating, just like a good-natured comedian’s observations on the conversation between two people at a bar, having loosened up after a couple of drinks.

Petey has a lot to say, and he belts out words from his gut in what sounds like a cross between Bruce Springsteen and a wasted punk rock singer at the bar from this album. Even during moments of tender reflection and vulnerability, he is no less charged up. For instance, on the album’s concluding “winding down” number, where the music marches on quietly, he questions manhood with the words “...I’m sorry I couldn’t figure out / Couldn’t get my act together / Couldn’t make it work / The world was built for me and I did nothing in it / Maybe it’s the privilege that makes it worse,” sung with the fire of a rallying cry, while also being utterly sincere.

Petey’s energetic personality and his lyrical sharpness are big forces in his music. But his song composition has no small personality of its own, having an undeniable liveliness to it, from intense drums to mighty synths, all recorded and meant to be played loudly.

The compositions also incorporate a kaleidoscope of styles like indie pop, synthpop, classic rock, folk, and country. Thus, there is the addictively frenetic “The Milkman,” where Petey creates his own “We Didn’t Start The Fire” fueled by Eighties pop spunk. Then there is “Model Train Town,” where he pulls off the purest and most heartwarming Seventies folk vocal harmonies. Also, there is the title track, which has chill classic rock saxophones. Anything goes here, with the only overarching principle that there are zero boring moments. And The Yips lives up to this principle, one hundred percent.

Rating: A-

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