** 1/2 VINCE GILL, “Let’s Make Sure We Kiss Goodbye,” MCA Nashville

The flowering of new love might be a better experience than grief and dissolution, but is it as artistically stimulating? Vince Gill’s new album (in stores Tuesday) does little to discredit the cliche that hard times stoke creative fires, while contentment breeds complacency.

On his last album, 1998’s “The Key,” Gill was spurred by his divorce and the death of his father to dig deep into difficult terrain, and he responded with a candid account of loss and longing that was both revealing and touching.

Things have gotten better in his life, but on his new record he’s gone all soft and squishy in the throes of his romance with pop singer Amy Grant, whom he recently married. “Let’s Make Sure” isn’t even a giddy, zing-went-the-strings outpouring, but a rather sober series of affirmations and vows. This is an album with a philosophical agenda rather than an emotional arc.

And while “The Key” had a rugged frame of classic honky-tonk and bluegrass forms, this engagement party brings out a slighter side of Gill, a pop-country mix that ranges from engaging to bland. Most of it is marked by Gill’s customary taste and restraint, but a duet with the new missus comes off mainly as a contest to see who wears the high notes in this family.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.