For their 2017 debut, Sun Kids, the Memphis/LA quartet wanted it to feel like their listeners were with them in a psychedelic Memphis forest, breathing the fresh air among all the Earth’s harmonic tones. This time, they wanted more disco funk meets psych rock vibe — and they got it. Eric Martin, another member and co-founder of the group, sparked the idea after discussing that he wanted to make a groovy album he could “shamelessly play start to finish as a DJ at a bar.” He also always wanted to write a song about a cocktail. That’s how the funky sci-fi romp “Piña Collider,” inspired by the scientists who work at the real life Hadron Collider in Switzerland, was made. “Back when I was with The Flaming Lips we got to party with these scientists underground at the Hadron Collider. They have this artist outreach program and are always looking for bands that come to the area to spread the word because they don’t really get funding,” Ingalls says.

Turns out the scientists showing Ingalls around were in a campus band themselves called Piña Collider. Ingalls asked the band if he could base a song off of them, took Martin’s cocktail song idea and made an incredibly catchy bop about a drink you could only get at the Hadron Collider. “It’s a fun idea about this drink that discombobulates you and at the Hadron Collider, they should be getting funding from a bunch of nations, but it’s very politically challenging there. So the idea is you drink this drink and none of that shit matters and we should all work together,” Ingalls says.

The band took the cocktail idea further and actually made a recipe for many of the songs on Anemoia. As a whole, the Sepia-toned Anemoia, with its lush synth melodies and heavy bass groove sounds as much like Tame Impala as it does Curtis Mayfield. It’s full melodies and catchy hooks and features some majestic guest vocal work from Meggie Lennon, Mikaela Davis, Penny and Pitchlynn (Labrys).