Where Alex Lahey’s debut I Love You Like A Brother and its 2019 follow-up The Best of Luck Club take their focus through the lens of relationships, on The Answer Is Always Yes, the Melbourne based songwriter analyzes her otherness through different lenses, from its isolating effect to the surrealism and humor it instills.

Lahey’s fun-loving rock has found new vessels on The Answer Is Always Yes, and the Sheryl Crow-esque country-pop of “Good Time” flexes Lahey’s signature sincerity and driving guitar lines while introducing a newfound melodic versatility. “This song was inspired by a night out I had at the pub with my friend soon after Melbourne came out of lengthy lockdowns,” says Lahey. “We were watching all these strangers around us have this ‘whatever it takes’ attitude towards making the most of the night (aka getting lit). It was a bit of a shock after being cooped up for so long, but also kind of invigorating.”

Early single, “Congratulations,” a “booming power-pop track” with it’s “volcanic and cathartic” chorus (The New York Times), is about the strange experience of having two exes get married separately in a short time span, where “The Sky Is Melting” revels in the chaos of consuming too many weed gummies. Lahey also delves into intense experiences on tracks like “Permanent,” which juxtaposes the accelerating gentrification of her native Melbourne with the regression she felt while living in her childhood home during the pandemic, or “They Wouldn’t Let Me In,” Lahey’s first song mining the depths of her queer teenage years.

Just as Lahey learned to reimagine the world around her, the music of The Answer Is Always Yes is also the product of reimagination. For the first time in her career, Lahey took a risk by inviting other writers and producers into the early stages of her creative process. With touring on hold indefinitely, Lahey didn’t have a strict deadline to finish the album, which lent plenty of time for writing sessions with the likes of Jacknife Lee and others. The result is not only Lahey’s most collaborative album yet, but also the most dynamic and surprising.