Backstreet Boys caught U.S. ears with a jarring suggestion of comeback drama, shouting “Backstreet’s back!” even though we didn’t know who they were, never mind why they’d gone away. Their gorgeous Disney-fication of R&B charmed desperate housewives and teen daughters, but by their 2000 album Black and Blue, the decreasingly boyish crooners looked like leering substitute teachers. Now, after a hiatus and some life changes—Brian Littrell started procreating, A.J. McLean finished rehab, Nick Carter made the tabloids as one of Paris Hilton’s hamburgers—the Boys take a new tack, avoiding E! farce to gun for Lifetime TV inspiration.

Never Gone’s rock ballads are painfully and sometimes powerfully earnest demands for meaning and redemption, transforming the guys from good boyfriends to resolute husbands and solid citizens. While “Poster Girl” hints at the teen dreams of yore, the dominant mood is rain-soaked pianos and heart-tugging guitars.

Several songs politely ask permission to return to fans’ hearts. “Just Want You to Know” revisits the hooky splendor of Kelly Clarkson’s recent smash “Since U Been Gone,” answering her declaration of independence with a plea for reconciliation. The first single, “Incomplete”—which features the scientifically intriguing line “Empty spaces fill me up” —riffs on Jerry Maguire’s iconic chick-flick declaration of love, celebrating earthly romance while also hinting at a Higher Love.

The soaring falsettos of “Weird World” grasp for universality with a “message to a G.I. in the desert,” musing, “Back here, it’s her and me/Having our first baby/ While he’s out there—takin’ ’em on.” The Boys understand their audience’s greatest concern: homeland security in all its forms. They do what they can to keep home fires burning, though a bonfire now seems beyond them.

DOWNLOAD: “Incomplete,” “Poster Girl”