Some would argue that rock 'n' roll is not supposed to be smart.

It's supposed to be stupid and primal and draw its inspiration from sex and substances -- not books or grand scientific and philosophical discourses -- and as soon as it starts to take itself too seriously, then it fails miserably.

Well, it appears Canadian band Our Lady Peace would disagree.

For Spiritual Mach-ines, the quartet's fourth album which hits stores next week, they have drawn their inspiration from a rather weighty tome, both physically and metaphorically, called The Age of Spiritual Machines -- When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by American inventor and technologist Ray Kurzweil.

It's a non-fiction book that describes a very near-future -- 2029, to be precise -- that is, as Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida puts it, "like Blade Runner, having machines have emotions and having them convince you that they're not machines."

To up the ambitiousness of the project, Spiritual Machines is also billed as a capital C concept record -- something which is apparently in vogue these days -- and features short sections of dialogue written by Maida and read by Kurzweil himself.

If you're worried that it all sounds a little too cerebral for a medium that's best known for such challenging works as Girls, Girls, Girls and Eat 'Em and Smile, you're not alone.

"I (was) worried about it, because when we were talking about it initially, about the book and the fact that I'd drawn a lot from the book -- it felt way too heavy-handed," Maida says from his Toronto home, before heading out on a string of live promo dates, including this evening's gig at Calgary's The Factory.

"But Mike (Turner, OLP's guitarist), wanted to ask Ray something, so he e-mailed him and the guy e-mails us back. Then we start this dialogue with the guy and next thing I'm picking out parts of the book that relate to the songs and he's giving us voiceovers by the notes that we sent him.

"So then all of a sudden for me it's like: I don't give a crap -- it's a concept record and it's not pretentious because he's involved in it."

Another aspect of the album that makes the lofty message a little easier to digest -- for Our Lady Peace fans anyway -- is that there's not a whole lot different about the album. True, it is a concept record, but the concept is only the lyrical thread that strings together what are otherwise fairly typical OLP songs, and maybe even a step back, production-wise, from their previous efforts, especially 1999's Happiness: Is Not A Fish That You Can Catch.

It's certainly no Kid A, which Radiohead designed as one-sitting trip that pushed the limits of their sound. And Maida says that was a conscious choice the band made so as to not obscure what they see as an important idea while, at the same time, injecting a little spirituality into the subject matter.

"It's not a huge departure," he agrees.

"It's basically ... another batch of great songs that have something intrinsic about them that we've exposed -- we've given you Ray. For me it's just another way to introduce him to a broader group of people that might not want to read his book. He's a genius, he truly is."

As to why Our Lady Peace even attempted a concept album in the first place and why others are doing it as well, Maida says the answer is two-fold: Because they can, and because they should.

"Music is really (expletive) boring right now ... so I think true artists are trying to find even more ways to try and express themselves," he says. "You can start taking liberties, and that's what we're doing."