Rotation

Veruca Salt
Resolver
Velveteen/Beyond Records

Among the slew of female-driven alternative bands that seemed to pop up in the mid-’90s with the frequency of Lincoln Bedroom slumber parties and Who reunion tours, maybe none had more initial promise than Chicago-based Veruca Salt. Co-singers, guitarists and bad girl/badder girl songwriters Louise Post and Nina Gordon made a startling 1994 debut with the fuzzed-out power-pop pleasure of the single “Seether.” But infrequent recording and genre-switching seemed to put the group in a semipermanent holding pattern.

Cut to 2000 and Resolver. With the departure of Gordon and the jettisoning of the rest of the group, it’s essentially a Post solo project (she handled the vast majority of writing and guitar playing). New members include Jimmy Madla (drums), Stephen Fitzpatrick (guitar) and Suzanne Sokol (bass, vocals). And while there are a handful of grand gut-churning rockers on the album, too many tracks just hang limply or are barely held aloft by Post’s whiny-baby raspy voice. Her lyrics (never a strong suit to start with) usually don’t rise out of the “don’t judge me/blame me/leave me” canon (“Best You Can Get,” “All Dressed Up,” “Imperfectly” and others). And while ’60s ¨ber-producer Phil Spector used his trademark “Wall of Sound” to illuminate a song, producers Post and Brian Liesegang have created distracting sonic backdrops and have arranged abrupt time signature changes that have instead obliterated entire tunes.

It’s no surprise that the good numbers here (lead-off single “Born Entertainer,” “Yeah Man,” “Officially Dead”) have balls. Post sings these songs in a tough, spitting voice. In “Used to Know Her” (perhaps a dig at Gordon?), the churning guitars are pure rawk — but compared to the rest of Resolver, these effects come off as small oases in a large desert. Of the more sedate numbers, only the wistful “Pretty Boys” — a paean to the best guys in the world, who sadly always end up being gay — makes an impact.

If anything, Resolver points out the need for Post to stop being so self-indulgent. At the moment, this disc indicates that Veruca Salt’s best work is still behind it.