Now entering their 30s, the members of the poppiest of pop-punk bands are trading black eyeliner and pointy bangs for stubble and shades. Their fifth disc is rife with signs of rock ambition — acoustic songcraft, sweeping guitar solos — folded into their vaguely emo, synthed-up sound. But the results are still kid-friendly and mostly forgettable. "Last Night" yokes a Jerry Maguire reference to a riff nicked from "Brown Sugar" and comes out sounding like hot Disney rock, while "Like It's Her Birthday" sets a man's problem ("She said she only had a meeting/But she is dressed for something/Something that is no good") to a bubblegum groove that a 14-year-old could throw a fist to.

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“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.