Ten years and a few reissues later, they've returned with a new disc. Not that you'd know it from listening to the radio. You wouldn't necessarily know it from listening to Major Lodge Victory, either. It's pleasant enough — "Curious Thing" and "Fool for the Taking" are particularly pretty slices of power pop — but the melodies just don't stick. If you're going to dredge up ghosts, you might want something new to say to them.

Gin Blossoms New Miserable Experience (A&M)

Gin Blossoms Major Lodge Victory (Hybrid)

Some might argue that's always been Gin Blossoms' problem. They weren't as edgy as Nirvana or as self-conscious as Beck, so tastemakers wrote off their work as well-made white bread. It's only half true, and it's not at all fair. New Miserable Experience has aged well. If in grunge-crazy 1993 it sounded slick, today it just sounds like emotionally honest jangle rock. Hopkins' depression and alienation make "Hey Jealousy" and "Found Out About You" as resonant now as when they were on the charts. Deeper cuts, like "Lost Horizons" and "Pieces of the Night," are clear-eyed, vulnerable and lovely.

But even if you take his tracks out of consideration, New Miserable Experience is solid. Lead guitarist Jesse Valenzuela, now the band's dominant songwriter, has six credits, and they temper Hopkins' desperation with hesitant hope. "Mrs. Rita" seeks assurance from a psychic, "Hands Are Tied" seethes with impatience. Singer Robin Wilson contributes "Allison Road," which bounces along on indecision and regret. And "Until I Fall Away," a Valenzuela/Wilson co-write, is easily the album's dreamiest moment. There's not a clunker in the bunch. And that may be Gin Blossoms' real problem: No matter how often they cast themselves as losers, Wilson and Valenzuela never sound totally lost. Suicide may have given Hopkins more credibility in that regard, but good for his ex-bandmates for not letting him have the last word.

(m_fine@citypaper.net)