into many of the same brooding themes with which Chris Cornell and Warren G. are obsessed, these records feel lighter, more buoyant, fun even. What a concept.

The subject that keeps turning up most often in the punk-pop underground is encapsulated by Offspring's "Self Esteem": "I may be dumb/But I'm not a dweeb/I'm just a sucker with no self-esteem." It's a tune with all of the genre's prerequisites: a rumbling bass riff, stuttering guitars and a guy who keeps getting stood up by his girl – if he has a girl.

In this world there's no shortage of songs that navigate the emotional chasm between high school and adulthood, and at times Offspring come off as rote. "Nitro" and "Not the One" strive for anthem status by proclaiming, "We are the ones/Who are living under the gun every day" and "We're innocent, but the weight of the world is on our shoulders," but neither tune is fast or inventive enough to overcome the whine in Bryan "Dexter" Holland's voice.

Otherwise, the Orange County, Calif., quartet refuse to settle for slam-and-surf conventions. They tinker with tempo and dynamics on "Genocide" by spooling the tension in and out, dabbling in ska on "What Happened to You?" and sliding a Bachman-Turner Overdrive riff into the midsection of "It'll Be a Long Time." "Come Out and Play" is a car wreck that shouldn't work but does: funky drummer intro, AC/DC chords, a recurring Middle Eastern guitar riff and a catch phrase worthy of a Cypress Hill single: "You gotta keep 'em separated." Call 'em punks if you want to, but a song this cannily designed, arranged and executed is worthy of the best rock-songwriting tradition.

In contrast to Offspring's musical hopscotch, Bad Religion's Stranger Than Fiction adheres to the hardcore-pop style the quintet perfected more than a decade ago. Bad Religion's previous releases were on Epitaph, the label the band's guitarist, Brad Burewitz, created in 1982 and which is now the epicenter of the Southern California punk scene with a roster including Offspring, Pennywise, Rancid and NOFX.

On its major-label debut, Bad Religion sound fiercer than ever, produced with blue-flame clarity by Andy Wallace (Rollins Band, Slayer, White Zombie). Blasting out of the box with "Incomplete," the band allows for only subtle variations in tempo and tone as it hurtles through 15 songs in less than 39 minutes. The effect is hardly monotonous; lik