Avi Buffalo smells like high school. Just one song catapults me into the back seat of Sam Nash’s Toyota, where we made fun of our French teacher and listened to mysteriously good music. “Truth Sets In” by Avi Buffalo was one of those songs. At the time, it changed my life. Four years later, I’m meeting Avi Buffalo again on At Best Cuckold. He still smells like teen spirit. His persona is the exact same: a mixture of chill surf-rock bro and teenage boy who masturbates five times daily. He nails that perfect combination of completely weird lyrics (“my boner pressed up to your chest,” he sings on “Memories of You”), genuine sincerity, and mesmerizing sound.

But his sound seems to have grown up. Mature isn’t a word normally associated with Avi Buffalo, but it could be applied here. Pieces of Real Estate’s Days and Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days influenced Avi Buffalo’s new record. After all, Avi Zahner-Isenberg, the man behind Avi Buffalo, was 19 when his self-titled album was released. There’s (hopefully) a big difference between 19 and 23. No question, however: the vibe on At Best Cuckold is perfectly adolescent. Avi Buffalo’s new album teems with sexual energy, curiosity, and profound over- confidence, as the gorgeous song “Overwhelmed With Pride” would suggest. If you want to be adolescent, however, you can’t avoid being shallow. Songs like “She is Seventeen” and “Two Cherished Understandings” sound and feel just like Season 2 of The OC. Deeply moving, sensually overwhelming, but just a bit too sappy.

At this point, so what? I’ve heard so much electronic music in the past six months that it’s nice to think of walks on the beach and the perfect first kiss again. Before we know it, Avi Buffalo will remind us of life twenty years ago, and not just five. Drop the irony and skepticism, and try on the age of sixteen again. It feels good.