Perhaps you’ve felt vaguely upbeat since this past Friday. Maybe you caught yourself doing finger crunches at your desk or even not scowling at strangers on the street. If so, it might be thanks to the latest release of persistently peppy Quebecois rockers Simple Plan, “Taking One for the Team.”

The boys from up north brought an end to a five year drought of their charming cheeseball rock, wherein the name “Simple Plan” was naught but a flashback to simpler, angstier times. With Grammy-winning Howard Benson taking on production, “Taking One for the Team” is 14 polished tracks of frenetic power chords and familiar lyrics about favorite hoodies and how everything sucks (but is also somehow great). You’ve also got the requisite acoustic tearjerker “Perfectly Perfect,” which, if you’re familiar with the band, is evident in the title.

True to its name, Simple Plan did not aim to reinvent the wheel on this release — that said there are a few notable diversions. For instance, “Singing in the Rain” takes a finger snapping detour into doo-wop territory that conjures up images of an alternate “Grease” with John Travolta sporting trip pants. Even better is “I Don’t Wanna Be Sad” which, complete with piping church organs and a gospel choir, feels closer in spirit to a Baptist revival than a pop-punk record. It’s bizarre, but you have to give kudos to Simple Plan for taking some stabs into new territory, no matter how dubious. Switching up the formula a bit can’t hurt either, considering that even at their peak, Simple Plan was never exactly the pace car for the genre, so to speak; other bands have pulled off the same style of scrappy, moshy, upbeat nonsense rock without approaching Simple Plan-level ridiculousness. But the band knows this, of course, and as we’re reminded on the album’s midway point “I Refuse.” Pierre Bouvier and the rest of the gang aren’t going “let the words you say get to them, nor let anyone say they can’t, nor apologize for who they are. Hell no”.

Even amidst all the goofiness, there are some interesting bits on “Taking One for the Team,” like the funky finger bass and Nile Rodgers-y guitar on “I Don’t Wanna Go To Bed,” which, inexplicably, features a neat little cameo from Nelly. Then there’s “Farewell,” which is probably the closest thing on the album to a straight up ’05-era pop punk track for the circle pit kids. But the fact of the matter is, it’s not 2005, the Warped Tour is full of electropop and the golden days of the mid 2000s have passed into antiquity. Simple Plan may well be taking one for the team on this one, but it’s also pretty clear that no one asked them to.

Email Jonah Rosario Inserra at [email protected].