Gin Blossoms
Major Lodge Victory

Passion is indeed a peculiar thing: it brings together the most diverse people, unites where even rivers of theological and philosophical literature fail, and it does so in an elementary, banal but irresistible way. Do you like doing this? Yes? So do I; then why don't we do it together? And the inequalities go away. But so do the misunderstandings, the enmities, the instinctive dislikes if one wishes. At least as long as there's something to do.

It was since 1996 that these former boys hadn't released a record together: years of stumbling, divisions, tensions, hospitalizations and discharges, rehabilitations and relapses. Difficult problems to solve, maybe impossible to face united. The fact is that the band broke up in '97 and reunited five years later to embark on endless tours. And only in 2006 do they release new material. Years of interlude, discord, entanglements but of concerts, because the passion is what must triumph and help them solve the problems of the past.

But what does it mean to return after ten years? Firstly, it seems to mean a change of direction. The Gin Blossoms are and will remain (assuming they continue to exist) a classic and/or roots rock band always and forever, but here it's the approach that changes. Just the opening track "Learning The Hard Way" is enough to understand that the approach has changed, and here we find ourselves more or less where a certain Billy Corgan ended up post-grunge and post-collapse of the Seattle empire, with his "Let Me Give The World To You". Melodic pop feelings, lost paths where all disoriented souls find themselves, whether they are grunge musicians in search of a lost identity (never had?) or more traditional musicians in search of a new path to start from again.

So, the path of the Gin Blossoms is melody paired with pop rock that has little of their Arizona: it's Californian, cheeky, and has a great zest for life; in "Come On Hard" it travels more than well; "Heart Shaped Locket" could hold its own against any teenage band today.

The ride can continue with the hard-hitting and not trivial "Long Time Gone," with the excellent melodic superrock "Let's Play Two," with a kind of punkpop with a campfire-song-like melody titled "Fool For The Taking," with super sweet ballads that are nothing special, aside from the late summer ballad "The End Of The World". Special mention for "Someday Soon," where you're inside a Tommy Hilfiger ad, and you're seventeen, blond, and immaculate, as well as for the concluding "California Sun": the American equivalent of the sun of Naples.

California is a dream, they said forty years ago, an illusion, a state of mind, and a state of grace that makes you write beautiful songs. And this album has quite a few. Will these warm and easy suggestions, and the certainty of a life to be lived as a perpetual tour, be enough for the Del Monte brothers (their second name) to stay together for, let's say, another decade? Meanwhile, two years have passed and there's no sign of any new albums coming.