The Exies [ tickets ] were put on the guitar-driven, aggro-angst map when their hit "Ugly" was used as a WWE theme-song in 2004, but, on their fourth release, it's their tender side--on display in an acoustic cover of Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime,"--that will initially turn the most heads.

The cut--which closes out the album with a sentimental sleeper-hold--doesn't have the flair of some of the set's more spontaneous rock moments, but there's something to be said for the sappy ending, even if it does err on the side of calculating. Nonetheless, the jarring momentum that gets the album that far deserves the most attention.

A nod to the Stone Temple Pilots gives the album an early rattle and hum on "Lay Your Money Down," with "Different than You" delivering the first blast of can't-miss, radio-ready guitar savvy a few tracks later. Frontman Scott Stevens belts lyrics that boast a spirit of heightened maturity, particularly in the face of relationships, and the songs land somewhere between airtight melodies and the grungy fuzz of new-millennium guitar rock (think bulked-up Puddle of Mudd, or Stone Temple Pilots sans their more Beatle-esque moments). "A Fear of Being Alone" offers a blitzing rush of riffs, "Dose" is a mainline shot of propulsive rock, and quasi-ballads like "These are the Days" keep the album on a relatively even emotional keel.

Give The Exies their due; while "A Modern Way of Living with the Truth" isn't anything that hasn't been heard before, it is something that isn't often delivered this well. Sound familiar? Maybe, but the hooks stick, the melodies linger and the songs have teeth. Sounding familiar rarely sounds this good.