With this album, one of pop's most shape-shifting careers enters a new phase. Boy George has a beard on the cover – a dabble with conventional masculinity that's mischievously offset by discreet eye makeup – and inside is a forceful reclamation of his musical reputation. Before the arrests and the 12-step groups, George's music was often freighted with solipsistic misery; here, on his first all-new studio album since 1995, he's got wisdom on his side. The opening track, King of Everything, apologises for having once thought "self-destruction was so cool" and wonders where he now stands with those he loves. It's a flowing orchestral number, huskily sung: a masterly introduction to the record. His deeper, richer voice has gravitas now – when he maintains, on the countrified It's Easy, that he now leaves heartbreak to others, his burnished tones are utterly authoritative. Live Your Life's old-time reggae and anti-homophobia lyric are closer to his Culture Club beginnings, but he didn't sing this powerfully then. This Is What I Do is the comeback of the year.