The Get Up Kids GUILT SHOW (Vagrant)

Kansans just coming out of their teens, the Get Up Kids were one of emo’s great white hopes as the ’90s came to a close. They finally encountered some growing pains on their third album, 2002’s On a Wire: though they didn’t succumb to the lure of major-labeldom, they did hire big-shot producer Scott Litt (best known these days for his work with R.E.M.) and ended up sounding a bit lost in his big studio mixes.

Guilt Show isn’t exactly a return to emo form. The Kids are older now, a more seasoned band. And though this time they set up shop in their own studio with their friend Ed Rose behind the board, they’ve made a comfortable transition from the punk to the pop side of the punk-pop equation. In fact, with piano playing a larger and larger role in their songs, and bolstered by a pair of muscular guitars, forceful bass lines, and a drummer who holds it all together without ever intruding on the massed melodies, they’re starting to sound like Fountains of Wayne–style classicists. They don’t quite have FoW’s wit or wisdom when it comes to the pop canon, but they compensate with earnest yet never overbearing songs, and they have the mix of world-weary charisma and wary optimism to put across confessionals with titles like "Martyr Me," "The Dark Night of the Soul," and "Is There a Way Out." The Kids may have changed their tune, but they’re still delivering soul-searching sonic salves for alienated youth.

(The Get Up Kids headline Axis, 13 Lansdowne Street in Boston, this Friday, March 12; call 617-262-2437.)