ALBUM REVIEW : Lyric Misfits Inhabit This Tuneful Work : “Mr. Mirainga” Mr. Mirainga; Way Cool Music/MCA ***

This debut album’s most distinctive departures from the punk-pop norm are the Caribbean polyrhythms that spice several songs. Elsewhere, the quartet cannily shifts dynamics, throws in some Seattle-style slab chords and, on “Safety First,” produces one of the catchiest, hardest-driving refrains this side of Smashing Pumpkins.

Craig Poturalski fronts the band with stringy yowling that’s tuneful and expressively apt for playing the misfits, losers and taboo-trampling lusters and dreamers who inhabit the band’s lyrics.

“Ants & Bees,” for instance, is a poignant and empathetic look at the humiliations of being male, teenage and utterly confused by it all. Belying the band’s avowed enthusiasm for over-imbibing, this number and “Loaded” both acknowledge the potential emptiness of alcoholic excess. “Burnin’ Rubber” is a straightforward anthem that daydreams about the freedom and escape of the open road. “Grandma’s Cookin,” a juicy number played to a slinky, swamp-rock voodoo beat, then reprised as a zooming, celebratory rocker, is a bent account of a not-so-pure love for one’s Granny.

Steve Gunderman, who lists non-punks Pat Metheny, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Van Halen as his big influences, keeps the guitar work nicely varied without losing cutting impact.