Five years after their last album, Incubus are still smoothing and softening the tantrum edge of what used to be called new metal, and still doing it pretty skillfully. The churning guitars here give arena emo an arty gloss.

Listen to Incubus' "Adolescents":  Gallery: Random Notes, Rock's Hottest Photos

“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."