The band’s first three albums — Twin-Hand Movement, Nootropics & Escape From Evil — formed a narrative about finding community and identifying one’s responsibilities. This trajectory was interrupted by personal crises including frustrating battles with mental health and a gender transition they had been deferring for many years. “I repressed the idea for a long time,” Hunter says, “but I’ve been going through both medical and social transitions, from living as a woman to a non-binary person and now toward the other end of the binary.” The Competition (out September 6, 2019 via Ribbon Music) draws on influences ranging across decades of Western pop music and chronicles messy, vulnerable humanity at a time of upheaval and chaos — through immersive, four-minute songs meant to give pleasure as much as provoke self-examination. It channels an urgent, restless desire to connect.