LOS ANGELES -- For Pennywise singer Jim Lindberg, making a hopeful and uplifting album didn't mean closing his eyes to the world's problems.

In fact, it meant facing them head on.

The Southern California punk band intended its fifth full-length recording, the upbeat Straight Ahead, to move beyond its dark 1997 album, Full Circle. But Straight Ahead, which was released Tuesday, is evidence that Lindberg's songwriting hasn't softened. He continues to churn out critical lyrics that probe issues ranging from American greed to urban violence to government duplicity.

"[This album] is kind of hopeful in the sense of acknowledging all the problems out there, and trying to inspire people that we do have the power to change things -- that it's not a completely naive thing to think that our generation can make some positive change," Lindberg said recently from his house in Hermosa Beach, Calif. (RealAudio excerpt of interview).

While Pennywise were working on Full Circle in 1996, founding bassist Jason Thirsk committed suicide after a drinking binge. His loss was apparent in the album's anguished, defeated themes.

"Obviously we just went through a huge tragedy, and we were still reeling from it," Lindberg said (RealAudio excerpt of interview). "Looking back, it was this crazy, terrible mixed-up time, and I can't even believe that we were able to put an album out."

Now, Lindberg said, "I was really hoping that with Full Circle being such a dark album that this one could be uplifting and positive."

He said the change of direction implied by the album titles -- from Full Circle to Straight Ahead -- is meant literally, in that he wasn't sure the band would continue after the last album.

"We've kind of had a chance to exhale and decide whether we wanted to continue to do this or ... hang it up with Jason and let it end," he said. "We kind of all made this conscious decision that we started something with Jason, and it would be wrong to let it stop there. We [decided to] move straight ahead and try to have a new beginning for the band."

The album's first single, "Alien" (RealAudio excerpt), is an exception to the project's general thrust of positive motivation, Lindberg acknowledged. The song, in which Lindberg sings, "Stand by while all your dreams are trampled in the dust," seems to be more about crouching down in despair than putting up a fight. Lindberg said he considered leaving it off the album for that reason.

For most of the 17 cuts on Straight Ahead (RealAudio excerpt of title track) Lindberg, guitarist Fletcher Dragge, bassist Randy Bradbury and drummer Byron Chase McMakin deliver tireless, raw energy. Most often moving at a breakneck pace, the songs feature hardcore rhythms and drilling guitars.

While "Greed" rails against self-indulgence, "My Own Country" and "American Dream" (RealAudio excerpt) offer political commentary on a government that has failed its people. The latter song -- one of the last written for the disc -- was inspired by Monica Lewinsky scandal, Lindberg said.

"It's just a commentary on our media fascination with scandal instead of the real issues," said the singer, who wrote the song while Pennywise were in Australia with the Vans Warped tour earlier this year (RealAudio excerpt of interview). "We're more concerned with the sex lives of our leaders than what they're doing with our country. It just seemed like the end of the American Dream for me."

Pennywise fan Joe Vavak, who runs the website Gotpunk.com, said Straight Ahead is the band's best album.

"It's a much more varied album, mixing everything Pennywise has had to offer in their 10 years of existence," Vavak, 20, wrote in an e-mail. "The irresistible 'Wise attitude is still there: in your face, always insightful, never wavering. Pretty much a f--- you to anyone who refuses to think differently than the norm."

Pennywise formed in 1988, while the members were in high school in Hermosa Beach. They released their debut EP, A Word From the Wise, on Theologian Records the following year. A college DJ passed the record to former Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who signed the group to his label, Epitaph, in 1990. Pennywise's self-titled full-length debut appeared in 1991 and became an underground hit among punk, surfing and snowboarding fans.

A committed punk fan himself, Lindberg is producing a documentary on the Los Angeles punk scene, which he said is usually underrepresented in books and films on punk. "Whenever you see a documentary on the history of punk music, Hermosa gets a tiny little mention, and it's all Ramones and Sex Pistols and Blondie," he said. "You never hear about the Descendents, Circle Jerks and Black Flag, which to me are the real forefathers of the punk scene."

Later this month, Pennywise will join several fellow punk bands, including Blink 182 and hip-hoppers Eminem and Black Eyed Peas, on the Warped tour. The fifth annual version of the extravaganza kicks off June 25 in San Antonio, Texas, with what Lindberg characterized as a refreshingly broadened lineup.

"It's not just 20 hardcore-punk bands -- there's a little more hip-hop flavor on this one, which was kind of lacking in the other ones, and I think a lot of kids are into that, too," Lindberg said (RealAudio excerpt of interview). "I think they did a really good job of making it a good mix, and it's absolutely the funnest tour you can do as a band, in my opinion."