The Bottom Line Saturation is a great rock and roll album. There aren't any bizarre elements. Rather, if you crave good ol' guitar-driven rock, this album is for you.
Full Review
Have you ever seen a certain movie starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman? You know the one...it's got lots of guns and blood and humor and stuff. I think, um, it's called Pulp Fiction or something...
That aside, most people have never heard of Urge Overkill besides the cover song that they contributed to the wonderfully successful Pulp Fiction soundtrack memorably entitled "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon." Saturation was released by Geffen in 1993 and preceeded the Pulp Fiction Soundtrack by just a year.
Rewind. Urge Overkill was formed in 1985 by a few suburbanite college kids in Chicago. The group named itself Urge Overkill after a Parlaiment song. Despite trying for years to gain attention and being produced by the now-reknowned Steve Albini, the band got little recognition until the release of their major label debut, Saturation.
At the time of this album's release, the band was as follows: "Eddie" King Roeser (vocals, bass), Nash Kato (guitar, vocals), and Blackie O'Nassis (drums, vocals). The first time I caught wind of Urge Overkill was after the release of their one and only hit single from the album "Sister Havana." Of course, I was immediately interested. They were unlike anything that was currently on the music scene. They didn't dress in flannel and wail on about death, drugs, and pain (although, I do to this day still enjoy the bands that did). Rather, the band echoed of the glorious decade that also brought my birth...the seventies. They dressed like the seventies and for that matter sounded like the seventies. It was a very welcomed change (at least for me).
"Sister Havana" is an appropriate first track on Saturation. The song definitely opens the album with great power and great promise. I have to say that this is one of the absolute best tracks of all of 1993. The song begins abruptly with fast, aggressive, and great guitars. I'm immediately interested in the album after the first chord. The vocals are amazing. They are smooth yet with a great big hint of aggression throughout. I also want to mention that there's absolutely NO way you can get away without tapping at least your toes with this one. Like I said. I LOVE THIS TUNE. "Sister Havana" is an old fashioned American rock tune.
Besides the first song, Urge Overkill manages to provide the listener with an overall good rock album. Also of special note is the third track entitled "Positive Bleeding." Again, I want to mention that the vocals are amazing & the song, although quieter than the first, is also full of emotion and for that matter fun. There are actually "oh, oh, oh" 's in the background like other songs from the likes of Cheap Trick in the aforementioned seventies. It's a great tune. Don't skip this one.
"Back on Me" is also a great rock tune. I love the heavy electric guitars that also somehow manage to be drowned out by other musical elements...namely the vocals. There's just a great energy and a great spirit that Urge Overkill seems to embody. I realize that it is very likely that you've never hear them...then again, you may have forgotten about them! Anyway, "Back on Me" is very diverse and even manages to somehow feature a triangle.
Those are my favorite three tunes from the album, but I'd also like to mention that the growling, angry guitars of "Tequila Sundae" make it worth a listen. In fact, it sounds a bit like my favorite band, Stone Temple Pilots. "Woman 2 Woman" sounds a bit like rock mixed with a good dose of punk. "Crackbabies" begins like a delicate ballad, then explodes into a heavy duty rock sound. "The Stalker" gets the skip thanks to feedback in the beginning of the song. "Dropout" is a low-tech sounding song with a great drumline. This song could definitely have found an audience on the radio (and for that matter 1994/95 MTV).
There were a few songs I didn't mention. They aren't great and they aren't skip-worthy..."Bottle of Fur," "The Stalker," "Erica Kane," "Nite And Grey," and "Heaven 90210." After having said that, this is a good album. In a perfect world, Urge Overkill would have been more successful. The real rock guitars and vocals are elements that I miss from many songs today and from even a decade ago.
If you're a rock fan, ignore the image of the band. If you saw pictures and then heard the music, you'd be shocked that guys that looked like that could produce such rockin' good music. I'd like to give them four out of five stars. Like I said repeatedly, Urge Overkill deserves your attention!
Muze: Copyright 1995 - 2008 Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.