Review: Gin Blossoms – New Miserable Experience

One of the many fun things about revisiting albums, like this one, is learning out new things about the record that most may have missed when it first came out. For example, while researching the context surrounding Gin Blossoms and their second studio album called New Miserable Experience, I never knew there was an alternate cover that was released for this record. In fact, the first cover for the album depicts an Arizona desert, which would later be replaced with the current image after A&M Records decided to push the record hard at radio outlets. With singles like “Lost Horizons,” “Allison Road,” “Until I Fall Away,” and arguably their biggest breakthrough single called “Hey Jealousy,” Gin Blossoms had everything you’d like to see in a band trying to make a name for themselves. The set was co-produced by Gin Blossoms and John Hampton (The Raconteurs, The White Stripes), and this LP holds up surprisingly well after 30 long years. By the time the promotional cycle would wrap up on New Miserable Experience, Gin Blossoms would earn a 4x Platinum record on their sophomore effort.