** 1/2 BARENAKED LADIES, “Maroon,” Reprise

Some might suspect these wacky Canadian pop stars have titled their new album after the way Curly of the Three Stooges pronounced “moron.” But no, the follow-up to 1998’s multi-platinum “Stunt” is named for a 1966 track by “word-jazz” pioneer Ken Nordine, who had a thing for twisting ordinary, even banal, situations into funhouse-mirror reflections on conformity.

Barenaked Ladies’ approach is vastly different, but the effect of such tracks as “Pinch Me,” with its view of a quiet life pinging between contentment and desperation, is vaguely similar. By now we expect this “American Beauty”-style “look closer” attitude from the deceptively fun-loving quintet, as much as we know the players will veer confidently from rollicking heartland-rock (“Never Do Anything”) to exuberant power-pop (“Too Little Too Late”) to XTC-esque clever bitterness (“Sell, Sell, Sell”).

Perhaps more surprising are the glimmers of maturity in such numbers as the insistently hooky “Baby Seat,” which advocates a grown-up approach to growing up. Songwriters Steven Page and Ed Robertson are even almost serious in the protest singer’s lament “Helicopters.” But while there’s a genuine wistfulness to the wryly gruesome “Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel,” the collection’s emotional states are so far-flung that it ultimately feels too glib. The Ladies play the Great Western Forum on Oct. 10.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums will be in stores Tuesday.