The Living End MODERN ARTILLERY (Reprise)

Smart, literate pop punk seems about as rare a commodity these days as a Justin Timberlake video free of gyrating babes and shit-eating grins. So when the Living End blow through the gates of the 90-second "What Would You Do?", which opens the Australian band’s third album, a genuine shiver goes down the spine as singer Chris Cheney yowls, "I can tell a lot by the things you wear/I can tell you’re gonna be a millionaire" over rock-candy guitars and hard-charging drums.

And that’s just one of the disc’s love songs. Elsewhere on Modern Artillery, Cheney rhymes "riot in Milan" with "solarium tan" in the Foo Fighters–like "One Said to the Other," uses countryman Angus Young’s pointillist guitar squall to interrogate thunderstruck nihilists on the lead single "Who’s Gonna Save Us?", and pillories "useless information" in "Tabloid Magazine." Yet what gives Artillery its bang is the Living End’s ability to delve into the political without forfeiting their knack for crackerjack tunes and excitable tempos. Cuts like "End of the World" and "Maitland Street" are as much fun as classic Blink-182 singles, but they come without the burden of dead-horse penis jokes.

(The Living End join the Vines and Jet on the Aussie Invasion Tour 2004 when it comes to Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston, next Friday, March 19; call 617-423-NEXT.)