The Afghan Whigs return with Soft Control, their tenth studio album and first since 2022’s How Do You Burn?, arriving as the band celebrates its 40th anniversary. Led by Greg Dulli, the Whigs remain unmistakably themselves, mixing muscular guitars with the soul and R&B undercurrents that have separated them from the pack since their earliest days.

For Dulli, Soft Control comes from a different place than some of the anger and volatility that fueled the band’s earlier records. “I’ve worked hard on my inner peace,” he says, describing a point in his life where he no longer feels in competition with anyone, including himself. That change in perspective runs throughout the album, but it hasn’t softened the Whigs’ bite. The tension, drama and emotional weight are still there, now paired with the confidence of a songwriter who knows exactly what he wants to say.

The album takes some of its inspiration from David Bowie’s observation that aging is the process of becoming the person you were always supposed to be. It’s an idea that fits Dulli particularly well. Four decades into the Afghan Whigs, he sounds reflective without losing the danger that has always hovered around the band’s music.

That balance can already be heard on “Jungle Roux,” with its hard-edged guitars and deep soul groove, while “House of I” and the piano-led “Duvateen” reveal the album’s darker, more contemplative side. “Duvateen” takes its title from the light-blocking fabric Dulli once used to keep his home in near-total darkness during a particularly bleak period, an experience that feeds into the song’s thoughts on mortality and memory.

Soft Control was recorded at Fireside Sound in Joshua Tree, Marigny Studios in New Orleans, Gold Diggers Sound in East Hollywood and Sycamore in the band’s hometown of Cincinnati. The Whigs recorded 22 songs before Dulli and company pared them down to a tight ten-track, 37-minute album. Guests include former Afghan Whigs drummer Patrick Keeler, vocalist and violist Petra Haden and My Morning Jacket keyboardist Bo Koster.

From the opening “Jungle Roux” through “My Lover,” “The Deepest Part of the Darkest Shadow,” “Memphis, Texas” and the closing “A Simulation,” Soft Control finds the Afghan Whigs looking at desire, darkness, mortality and the passage of time through the same rock-and-soul lens that has defined their best work. Forty years in, Dulli may have found some inner peace, but thankfully the Afghan Whigs still know how to make things beautifully uncomfortable.