I think I speak for everyone when I say that I don't enjoy being preached to by bands after I've put down the cash to buy their record. MC Hammer was guilty of this social error and look where it got him-- bankrupt of both cash and homies. The Cranberries, too-- after their anti-drug campaign, "Zombie," people around the globe simply forgot to buy their next album, 1999's future cut-out bin classic Bury the Hatchet.

So how can such sermonizing be embraced in indie and punk rock? Thumb through the pages of Punk Planet and try to ignore their one-sided political exposés. Go to any all-ages venue and be taught the rules of being truly punk. Or, better yet, pick up the Lapse's latest album, Heaven Ain't Happenin', and learn why you're not a good enough person in general. Each song is crammed with Chris Leo's self-important rants, shaming us into submission. From the opening track, "Buffet," in which we're told to eat better food because "nothing is wasted in entrees left untasted," to the empty haranguing of "Cell Yielding Cell" ("School is a place for fondling developing breasts/ And mothers compete for the naiveté of quarterbacks"), Heaven Ain't Happenin' is listening to a guy that's likely to have never known a day of self-betterment in his life shout at you about correcting flaws that don't even directly affect him. And though Leo's virtuous lyrics are often impressively poetic, it rarely redeems his indie evangelism.

Leo's pretentiousness is countered by the Lapse's other half, Toko Yasuda. Rather than using her popularity as a means of vehemently attacking human imperfections, her prose is just senseless. In a way, it's preferable over Leo's crass superiority because, while nothing is being said, it's less confrontational and easier to ignore. This, believe it or not, is to the album's credit, because the music itself is really the record's finest attribute.

Heaven Ain't Happenin' hosts Leo and Yasuda's strikingly complex and angular melodies, and Leo's unconventional guitar parts. "S.O.S." showcases the rigid pounding of guest drummer of Harrison Haynes' drumkit, the furious strumming of AK-47 guitars and Yasuda's sweet, rhythmic vocals riding the second hand of a clock. Leo's solemn ode to past girlfriends, "I Vow for Now," features a beautifully plucked acoustic keeping time to lyrics that pay off on every other line. And the album's vocal-less closer, the murky "Into the Psychomanteum," is composed of several guitar tracks descending into some surreal rock-opera-like ether.

So, on Heaven Ain't Happenin', Leo and Yasuda prove themselves as incredibly competent musicians held back only by their overly-principled and meaningless lyrics, respectively. And while the album serves as a fine follow-up to their Gern Blandsten debut, Betrayal, the Lapse's approach isn't all that different this time around. This, unfortunately, will be their last album, as they've disbanded since the record's release. But though we may never know what they could have become with more experience, their future projects should lead them in better directions. Any environment where Leo's didacticism is restrained should prove worthy of a listen.

-Ryan Schreiber