Spin wrote: "Calcifying their trademark lounge leer into a dead-eyed glare, singer-guitarists Nash Kato and Ed 'King' Roeser ply curdled Bad Company riffs and a seedy, confessional air, serving up shit cocktails to anyone foolish enough to swallow ’90s nostalgia."[7] The A.V. Club wrote that the band "keeps the Nuge-style riffage on Rock & Roll Submarine rooted in the realities of basement-show grime, tamping down the old stadium-ruling ambitions with wanton sloppiness and purposefully duller hooks."[8] The Washington Post wrote that if the album "displays less attitude than Urge’s ’90s work, that’s probably because [Eddie] Roeser has gradually supplanted the flashier [Nash] Kato as the principal songwriter."[9] The New Yorker thought that the Urge Overkill of Rock & Roll Submarine "offers a more raw sound, but with tightly arranged and raspingly sung anthems."[10]
- "Mason/Dixon"—2:58
- "Rock & Roll Submarine"—4:01
- "Effigy"—3:44
- "Poison Flower"—2:32
- "Little Vice"—3:14
- "Thought Balloon"—4:13
- "Quiet Person"—3:23
- "She's My Ride"—3:33
- "End of Story"—3:24
- "The Valiant"—3:45
- "Niteliner"—2:21
- "Touched to a Cut"—2:09