If the Spice Girls reunion was a textbook example of how not to conduct a comeback – woeful single, underwear-heavy video, turbulent tour – then Take That’s return is the gold standard: a hugely successful second coming from a band determined not to fritter away their reserves of goodwill.

Walking out of the shadow of the valley of Robbie Williams with Beautiful World, they cast off the spangled clothes of the defunct boy band and replaced them with immaculate Marks and Spencer suits, repositioning themselves as showbiz veterans who have matured alongside their fans. The thrusting hips and ludicrously studded codpieces are now a distant (if fond) memory; instead, Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Jason Orange have found a trooper-like dignity few would have expected.

Once again a group collaboration, their fifth album is a nononsense blend of big-hearted, inspirational balladry (Greatest Day, Hold Up a Light) and Shine-style twinkle. It is disappointing that they won’t run wilder now they must no longer pay lip service to the teen market’s prissy puritanism.

Even so, there are some genuinely odd moments here. The cane-twirling ELO hoofer Hello has read the news today, oh boy – “looks like the cost of houses is falling/ but I don’t notice” – although this cavalier approach to current affairs seems to be caused by love rather than the Marie-Antoinette perspective of the successful pop star. Orange’s impassioned How Did it Come to This sounds like a psychology manual on shuffle, throwing about words such as “neurotic” and “schizophrenic” – you never would have predicted it when they were smearing each other in jelly for the video of Do What You Like.

It’s understandable, if saddening, that there isn’t more of this oddness in the music. While the terrible album cover shows the boys balancing on tightropes, this record tells a less precarious story. Like any high-street name in economically uncertain days, Take That aren’t taking any risks. Instead, The Circus is an act of brand consolidation – not a recklessly slinky impulse buy but the sensible cotton foundation garment that could fit into any basket.

(Polydor, TS £12.99)

www.timesselects.co.uk/music

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