New Orleans has never had enough good chanteuses, especially in the rock category, and so Kristie Nalley’s debut EP Mama’s Wine turned a lot of heads last year, especially among collegiates. Her bizarre vocal stylings owe a lot to Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, the Velvet Underground’s Nico, and Rasputina’s Melora Creager, and, like those artists, she likes to play the seductress, lure you inside, and then shove your face in your own desperation. She’s also not above calling out her sisters for not going off in a similar fashion, which is where you get diatribes such as the opening “Barely Legal.”

This solo debut, then, which features the entire Mama’s Wine EP along with five new songs, should be fascinating. And it is — to a point. Bassist/cellist and producer Dave Stover brings her vocals way up in the mix, which only makes her avant-garde sense of melody sound like off-key singing. He no doubt wanted her to rise above the sonic cacophony he constructed around her, intriguing little symphonies of post-riot grrl noise and classicist alt-rock structure. But, that has the effect of making her sound disaffected, and the quiet, almost tame way she refuses to attack the mic doesn’t help.

It’s no coincidence that the drama hinted at on these dozen cuts — which keeps threatening to turn explosive on “Get Back Down There” and “Divorce Me,” only begins to truly ignite on the last track, “Too Far,” where her distorted vocals occasionally drop down and roll around in the band’s mud. “ Too far? Not far enough.