" I want to feel like I did, " Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker sings on " Innocence, " a cut from his band’s first disc since 1998’s Musical Chairs. " And I want to feel innocence. " Hardly seems possible, does it? After all, Rucker’s the guy who sowed the seeds for countless mid-’90s MOR-rock hacks. The mushy acoustic guitars and oatmeal melodies of Cracked Rear View, the Hooties’ zillion-selling debut, are what convinced Train and Matchbox Twenty they could fly, so it’s only fair that he continue to squirm for his misdeeds.

Yet what’s abundantly clear across these 12 new songs is how good the Blowfish still are at creating musical comfort food, a commodity more valuable now than it was during the band’s salad days. Almost every tune features something worth hearing: the lilting chorus on the opening " Deeper Side, " producer Don Was’s horn parts on " Show Me Your Heart, " the ersatz New Orleans bounce of " Little Brother, " Indigo Girl Emily Saliers’s harmony vocals on " When She’s Gone. " Although the band’s moment has passed and nothing here will make the waves that Rear View’s hits did, this is a not unwelcome return.