Yes, this album is called Rock & Roll Submarine. It’s a ridiculous title, and that’s only fitting; Urge Overkill, better than most anyone, have always personified and reveled in the inherent absurdities of rock and roll.
And they’ve finally returned. It’s been fifteen years since their last album, but aside from now being able to travel underwater, they haven’t changed a bit. They’ve brought thundering drums, huge riffs, catchy tunes, interweaving lead vocals, and they sound every bit as unique and out of place in today’s world as they did in the last millennium. There’s no irony here, no carefully calculated distance from the subject matter, no excuses being made… Just twelve tunes and 39 minutes of being awesome, with guitars.
Urge’s vocals are still among the best in the business; Eddie Roeser’s snarl and Nash Kato’s velvet tones fit together perfectly. The songs are catchy and dynamic, strutting, stomping, and staggering in turn. The production is phenomenal, each strum and breath and searing lick fitting just right in the mix, the close harmonies of guitars and vocals working so well that they pass by nearly unnoticed. And there’s a fantastic sense of dynamics, tunes breaking down into intimate whispers before building back up to tsunamis of noise and glorious excess. It’s the sound of a great band doing what they do best: having a blast, wholeheartedly embracing the brilliant unreality of making music.
And as for the title: Rock & Roll Submarine? Yeah, why not? It sounds cool. And it’ll probably sound even cooler played really loud.
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