Once a VMP Rising band back in January 2017, Middle Kids are back with an exclusive of their newest album, Lost Friends. Debuting on Domino, Lost Friends is the kind of album that suckerpunches you in the gut, revealing its nuances only after repeated listens. Its 12 songs veer from brittle blasts of indie rock, to elegiac piano ballads, to pop anthems destined to ignite stadium singalongs. Lost Friends is indeed beautiful, and yet it’s also a strange brew of skittering tempos, melodies that suddenly shift from major to minor chords, and rhythmic interludes that set the band apart from its peers. But then, Joy, Fitz, and Day have always been musical chameleons with outsized aspirations. All three members share at least one common thread, though: They know how to craft classic hooks and riffs that tangle up in your brain like taffy and choruses that linger long after the song has faded. And they’ve bonded over a greater sense of what their music should accomplish.