*** Nash Kato

DEBUTANTE

(Will/Loosegroove)

If you were an Urge Overkill fan, it was hard to get past the feeling that the Chicago trio threw in the towel before they had a real chance to make good on the promise of 1993's Saturation. That was the album where the band backed up the ironic retro '70s fetish they'd been working on since the mid '80s with the kind of big, sweeping guitar hooks, extra crunchy power chords, and Formica-smooth production values that might have gotten them an opening slot with Cheap Trick at Budokan back in the day. And then, well, they made the obligatory half-hearted burn-out album about what a drag it is being rock stars and quietly faded outta sight, or something like that.

Well, seven unlucky years have passed and Urge principal Nash Kato is back to finish what Saturation started by himself, or at least without the rest of the band (save drummer Blackie Onasis, who doesn't play on the album but does get a half-dozen co-songwriting credits). Which is fine because Kato's relaxed vocalizations and crisp and compressed humbucking hooks were the main Overkill touchstones. His sucking-in-the-'70s shtick and too-decadent-to-give-a-shit attitude have lost some of their sparkle because that's what shticks and stoned poses do. But he's still got a way with the riffage and a knack for latching onto melodies you swear you remember from some song you heard on the radio as a kid but can never quite place. He's retained much of the Urge esthetic; he's even added some vaguely ELOish processed background vocals that should be much more annoying than they are. But then, that's always been a big part of Kato's wry appeal.

-- Matt Ashare