** 1/2; LEMONHEADS, “Come On Feel the Lemonheads”; <i> Atlantic</i>

At least you can’t say they don’t warn you: The Lemonheads’ very name suggests that this isn’t going to be heavy-duty thinking music, and the title of their fifth album invokes ‘70s dummies Slade, which doesn’t exactly raise the stakes. But Evan Dando isn’t so much knucklehead as hopeless dreamer. You have to admire the way he borrows the styles of aggressive antecedents from the Ramones to the Pixies and uses them as charged backdrop for his own sort of collegiately pokey, idealistic, sketchy and perfectly laid-back musings. You might also wish he’d work a little harder.

Dando’s likably subdued manner is most congruous with the acoustic ballads, like “Favorite T,” a tune about unransomed post-relationship clothes, and “Big Gay Heart,” an unabashed statement of solidarity with society’s oft-bashed. The power-pop rockers also generally fare well, though Dando’s vocal affectlessness sometimes puts the band in danger of sounding like a lazier version of the Smithereens. Mostly the songs are built around some very good ideas that Dando didn’t break much of a sweat bothering to flesh out.