Tasty Salt Licks Come With Metal Trimmings

VERUCA SALT

“Eight Arms to Hold You”

Outpost/DGC

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The Chicago band’s 1994 single “Seether” repackaged the Pixies and the Breeders--inventive acts that could stick in your craw--as pure pop ambrosia. Veruca Salt again shouts its allegiance to bubble gum and the Beatles, naming its second full-length record after the working title for the Moptops’ film “Help.”

Pop is the gloss, but “Eight Arms” is a raucous metal monster: tongue-in-cheek in its references to hair bands and riddled with catchy, crushing hooks. “Volcano Girls” is an unbridled tantrum that might have been recorded with a guy snapping his fingers in the background.

It’s not all a joy ride: singers Louise Post and Nina Gordon waste time on dumb diary musings and mushy melodies, and producers’ tastes are, once again, too obvious for comfort. Liz Phair producer Brad Wood--known for a low-key, basement-indie sound--clearly tweaked the dials for the band’s debut, “American Thighs”; Steve Albini cranked out its ’95 EP, stamping it with faux-punk schlock. With Motley Crue producer Bob Rock now at the helm, metal is this year’s flavor. Thankfully, it feels closer to the band’s heart, but it also makes you hunger for a great Veruca Salt album that doesn’t lean so heavily on the man behind the boards.

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