Simple Plan No Pads No Helmets... Just Balls CD

Serving as an answer to the plethora of American-born, third- and fourth-generation pop-punk bands that include Fenix TX and Riddlin' Kids comes Simple Plan, a Montreal-based quintet who packed their debut with plenty of anthems steeped in adolescent angst trimmed with plenty of shout-along-choruses, sweet harmonies, and unadulterated hooks. The album title hints at the band's penchant for toilet humor so it comes as no surprise that Blink 182's Mark Hoppus and Good Charlotte's Joel Madden both put in cameos on the yearning "I'd Do Anything" and the defiant "You Don't Mean Anything" respectively. When you get past the AMERICAN PIE-like comedic sensibilities, Simple Plan slips in a few more serious nuggets like an open letter to a combative father ("Perfect") and an infectious ode to self-loathing ("God Must Hate Me"). Of course, these Canucks with catchy songs steep most of their best material in the trenches of unrequited amour ranging from the double-entendre-littered "Addicted" and chugging love letter "My Alien" to "I Won't Be There," a peppy song that chronicles the end of a relationship. Simple Plan proves American teens don't have the market cornered on angst and emotional upheaval.

Recorded at Arnyard Studios, Toronto, Canada; Select Sound, Buffalo, New York; Studio West, San Diego, California.

Simple Plan: Sebastien Lefebvre (vocals, guitar); David Derosiers (vocals, bass); Pierre Bouvier (vocals); Jeff Stinco (guitar); Chuck Comeau (drums).

Producers: Arnold Lanni, Ziad "Zee" Al-Hillal, Simple Plan.

Additional personnel: Arnold Lanni (piano); Joe Madden, Mark Hoppus (background vocals).

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.