I want you to take a moment to sit in silence, close your eyes, and try to picture yourself. What are you like? What are you wearing? Now do the same, but imagine yourself at 1AM on a Saturday night with a group of friends. Again, but this time on a Tuesday morning trying to make a good impression on a potential employer. I’m a firm believer that everyone has multiple personas—that who you are has more to do with the context of your surroundings than who you are at your core. Especially true for introverts, I have a hard time reconciling the idea that there is a “true you.” There are different costumes we wear, ways we behave around others, and all of those combined tell the story of who we are.

Mr Twin Sister are a band who have contemplated this idea since their early days. Take the lyrics of “Meet the Frownies” for example: “I smoke with you, ‘cause you’ve taught me to … So shy to my friends, even shy to me.” Or “Milk & Honey” from Color Your Life: “Why can’t you be what I want you to be?” Identity has been at the forefront of the band’s consciousness for a while now, but never as magnified and open as on their new self-titled album. Coupled with an androgynous name change, their new album’s late-night neon-speckled songs explore feelings of inadequacy, confusion, and identity.

The record evokes imagery of boozy weekend nights, with “Sensitive” bubbling up from a hazy chill into a crisp groove with cascading keys. “Now that I’ve had two or three / I can get a little free,” goes a line on “In the House of Yes,” and eventually the song explodes into a celebratory disco-tinged dance floor jam complete with soaring strings. The album itself plays front-to-back like inebriation itself, devolving from pure joy into weird, deranged territory. The sublime, lovesick “Blush” gives way for “Out of the Dark,” which marks the album’s stranger B-side that addresses the aforementioned themes in a more abstract way.

“12 Angels” and “Out of the Dark” make a pretty abrasive pair of tracks, with the former featuring warped voices observing people in the club in a hungered, angry tone. It’s intense music, but if you’ve ever been in a packed bar or venue and felt unwelcome or uncomfortable, the cacophony of noise during the song’s outro can feel somewhat familiar.The warped voices, while likely from front-woman Andrea Estella, are pitched down in various octaves to sound more masculine.

Mr Twin Sister’s androgyny has always been an aspect of their music, but where before it mostly bled through in the indistinguishable male-female vocals, I can’t help but notice how queerness and gender plays a much larger role now. From the traditionally queer genres (disco, house) that influence most of the music here, to the curious name change, to Estella’s lyrics, there is a thread running through the album that celebrates the freedom that comes with having a safe space to explore your identity. But even with the freedom to discover yourself still comes the confusion of selfhood: at the core of the album’s centerpiece “Blush” is a plaintive, questioning statement: “Is there even a real me, or am I just a series of nights?”

Mr Twin Sister’s sophomore full-length is out now via Infinite Best.