Few bands embody rock and roll’s youthful enthusiasm like grunge pioneers Mudhoney, so it’s weird to think that as of 2018 the band has been around for 30 years. This is where we find ourselves in this too-weird-to-parody year.

The first time I heard Mudhoney, I knew that if these guys could do it, anybody could make rock music. It was three chords, not brain surgery. But I also knew that few could compete with the blistering vocal chords of Mark Arm. His libidinous delivery of lines like “Sweet young thing ain’t sweet no more” magically gave a voice to a generation’s collective identity.

Mudhoney is back with its 10th studio album, which witnesses its energies redirected away from youthful indiscretions and toward more explicitly political ends. Digital Garbage cries out against hypocrisy while pleading for a return to Christian values in the age of Trump—an unexpected twist in the band’s sordid odyssey.

Digital Garbage kicks off with “Nerve Attack,” proving how slavish devotion and years of practice can bring a band to a sound like Iggy and the Stooges. This is not a criticism. As T.S. Eliot said, “great artists steal,” and Mudhoney have long stolen from Iggy. It’s encouraging to see the practice pay off.

The album’s second song, “Paranoid Core,” moves further to the left and raises its banner with a sneering critique of Alex Jones-style fear mongering. Mark Arm frantically screams the song’s first lines, “Robots and aliens/ They’re stealing jobs and bringing drugs/ They’ll rape your mom,” before delivering the chorus with a sneer, “I stoke the fire of your paranoid core/ I feed on your fear.”

Arm’s voice is still the gold standard in paint peeling, and the band hasn’t lost a step, either. In fact, Mudhoney is better. The songs on Digital Garbage are far more complicated and carefully crafted than the beer-soaked riffs that made its early stuff so great. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Trying to use these new songs to recapture youthful moments in the mosh pit will only lead to a mid-life crisis.

“Please, Mr. Gunman” tackles the epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence, specifically, the Charleston church massacre. “Touch Me I’m Sick” is still a better anthem for the gun-toting jerks out there, if you ask me. “Night and Fog” syncopates and complicates Mudhoney’s usual rudimentary riffage, but all the songs still showcase the rhythm section’s powerful chug. Both Arm’s and lead guitarist Steve Tyler’s guitar parts are more sophisticated, but it’s still a long way from King Crimson.

Mudhoney tackles religious hypocrisy on a pair of tracks on the second side of the album. The cut “21st Century Pharisees” excoriates the evangelical leaders who visited Trump in the White House, while “Prosperity Gospel” echoes the sentiment with a complicated instrumental jam. The latter track shows the benefits of lots and lots of time playing your instrument.

“Messiah’s Lament” is just that—Christ’s lament at seeing the state of the world in 2018. Sings Arm: “I fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes/ These days they just whine about 5,000 dietary restrictions/ Look what they’re doing in my name.” It’s a long way from 1988’s “In ‘n’ Out of Grace,” but that’s hardly a bad thing.

A little evolution never hurt anyone. It’s nice to see Mudhoney use its energy to push for social progress, and reassuring to hear Mark Arm delivering that message with his characteristically nasal derision and a whole lot of cursing. Digital Garbage is the sound of a good band getting better, even though it doesn’t balm the sad truth that we can’t spend forever in a mosh pit at a late ’80s Mudhoney show.

Follow writer David Gill at Twitter.com/songotaku.