There’s a time in many a young man’s life when he comes into his own, when suddenly everything just clicks. Gone is the awkwardness of youth, while the challenges of aging have yet to come. As such, his confidence level is at its peak and things seem to come with ease. It is a moment that never lasts as long as one might hope, but while it does, life is golden.

Think of the Afghan Whigs who released Gentlemen as that young man. Without even taking the album’s overriding themes into consideration, the record seemed to come naturally as the product of someone at the height of his prowess. It was tainted by neither trend nor lack of originality, instead it was singular in its siphoning of the roar of the alterna age to meld with soulful undercurrents. When added to singer Greg Dulli’s tapping of the male id, the record’s gilded 11 tracks seemed to be the fruition of more than even just the glorious noise of the band’s previous two long-players.

But that was a long time ago—two albums and a break-up ago, in fact. So, it’s to be expected that the band isn’t as svelte as it once was, and Do to the Beast (Sub Pop), the band’s first new record in 16 years, doesn’t have a chance in hell in living up to Gentlemen. But there’s still something likeable here, certainly more than on 1965, the band’s supposed swan song from 1998. Putting aside the album’s first two cuts, “Parked Outside” and “Matamoros,” which sound canned, Do to the Beast feels lived in, a record born rather than made. The middle third of the record—“Lost in the Wood,” “The Lottery” and “Can Rova”—is both literally and figuratively the heart of the record, with Dulli eschewing the asshole caricature he’s relied on too often in the past for some honest emotion. Original member Rick McCollum’s guitar is missed, as his distinctive tone was as integral as Dulli’s husky voice, but that hole has been filled sonic textures from contributors like Mark McGuire (Emeralds). With this album, the question of whether or not Dulli’s still got it has been rendered moot, as he no longer needs whatever it was.