Barenaked Ladies - Maroon CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

to start making sense. There are still plenty of adolescent asides on their fifth studio album, Maroon -- the first single, a faintly dub-influenced bonbon called "Pinch Me," alternates between riffs on the existential blankness of modern puberty and such third-grade taunts as "I just made you say underwear." But there are more moments when all-too-human messes lurk beneath the veneer of producer Don Was' perfect pop tracks, moments when the relentless sunniness of the music is pierced by sober themes (the last song, "Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel," is a graphic account of car-wreck carnage) and dark, psychological-profile assessments. In turning the snarky level down a notch, Robertson and Page haven't sacrificed the band's good-time giddiness -- they've just opened things up a bit.

Being grown-up and all, Barenaked Ladies can bounce from sublime to ridiculous on a line-by-line basis, as happens on the bridge in the slapping shuffle "Never Do Anything." It begins with the solemn plea, "Don't write me off as an also-ran/Just mark me down as an angry man." That's followed by something much more glib: "Got a big chip, you want a fat lip?/How 'bout a mouth full of Chiclets?" Then it's back to a serious confession: "Life passed me by, but it's not my fault." Then the wry quipster reappears to get the last word: "I'll lick my wounds, could you pass the salt?"

That tart, smart writing defines much of Maroon, making it a nyah-nyah to those who dismissed Barenaked Ladies as nothing more than an accomplished novelty act. From the opening riff, which recalls the hulking rhythm-guitar line of the Stones' "Start Me Up," it's clear that this band isn't just aiming for kitschy laughs anymore. They are in pursuit of nothing less than the Supremely Crafted Pop Moment, that gilded edge-of-orgasm refrain that can change your life just by the way it sounds, no matter what the words say.

Producer Was, the celebrity career-fixer whose resume includes albums by the Rolling Stones, is perfect for the task: He's a sucker for that stuff, understands how to use studio trickery to create that magic and knows enough to avoid gooping up an otherwise solid song. He doesn't have to do much: Each of Maroon's first six tracks is