On their previous album, Title of Record, Filter transcended their status as a hitmaking Nine Inch Nails spinoff and became something like the Jane’s Addiction of the Family Values generation. Frontman Richard Patrick made like Perry Farrell in breezy "Jane Says" mode on the hit "Take a Picture," which stood out from the rage-rock anthems of its day by virtue of its tunefulness.

"Where Do We Go from Here," the first hit from the band’s third and latest disc, follows the same blueprint, with just enough angst in its grooves to uphold the group’s rock cred. The album’s other big pop move is the upbeat acoustic rocker "The Only Way (Is the Wrong Way)," on which Patrick decides to deal with his frustrations rather than take them out on everybody else. But there’s still plenty of anger in his songs, and he hasn’t stopped writing the kind of ugly metal riffs that got him here in the first place. The band hit their overpowering stride on "You Walk Away"; the disc’s bleakest lament is the self-explanatory first-person narrative "My Long Walk to Jail." But even that one gets its own piercing pop-metal hook, and that’s the key to Filter’s enduring appeal.