The Cure's incomparable Robert Smith hits record stores Tuesday with the 13th studio album from his veteran British band.

And while the general consensus is that these gloom rockers haven't reached the same musical heights in the '90s as they did in their '80s heyday, their gloriously melancholy and pretty goth-pop sound still works for me.

This nine-song collection, however, isn't as consistently strong, diverse-sounding or as fun as The Cure's last underrated album of all new material -- 1996's Wild Mood Swings.

As it stands, Bloodflowers has an overwhelming sad vibe with the dreamy album opener Out Of This World being the standout track. Also worth checking out is The Last Day Of Summer and The Loudest Sound, both featuring lots of The Cure's yummy signature chimey guitar sound, the delicate piano ballad There Is No If ... , and the harder-edged rock of 39. A lot of the songs though just somberly plod along like Watching Me Fall, which clocks in at a staggering 11 minutes and 13 seconds.

Bloodflowers -- officially the third part of a trilogy that began with 1982's Pornography and 1989's Disintegration -- could be, according to the press notes, "the oft-threatened 'last-ever' Cure album." Let's hope not. I'd rather Smith go out with a bang than a whimper.

Track Listing 1. Out of This World
 2. Watching Me Fall
 3. Where the Birds Always Sing
 4. Maybe Someday
 5. Last Day of Summer, The
 6. There Is No If...
 7. Loudest Sound, The
 8. 39
 9. Bloodflowers