On Lava La Rue’s jangling new-wave jam “Push N Shuv,” the future collides with the past. La Rue’s vocal takes, recorded when the artist was 21, are a time capsule marking the exact moment they sowed the seeds that would become their debut album. The vocals intertwine with a piercing flute melody, which adds a dash of sci-fi surrealism to the otherwise retro funk groove. On STARFACE, the record that arrives five years after those vocals were recorded, La Rue continues to catalyze the old and the new. The result is a glistening mixture of psychedelic funk, ska punk, grunge, soul, and indie rock.

La Rue—whose stage name is an anagram of their birth name, Ava Laurel (also spelled Aiwa Laurel)—was born in west London in 1998. Raised primarily by their Jamaican grandmother, they entered foster care in their teen years. Surrounded by the punk heritage of the West London estates they lived in, they started a DIY band of their own named the West Borns, which they’ve described as an aspiring “all-girl band version of the Clash.” Later, in school, they met fellow musicians Lloyd Macdonald and Jess Smyth—now known by stage names Mac Wetha and Biig Piig—with whom they formed the NiNE8 Collective. NiNE8 represent a radical proposition in a world of nepo babies: independent, working-class Gen Z artists who insist on splitting all profits equally between them, prioritizing community and collaboration above solo success. Alongside their work with the collective, La Rue has collaborated with artists including Clairo, Deb Never, and Vegyn on their own music—releasing a clutch of EPs blurring their indie, punk, and rap influences since 2017—as well as directing visuals for other artists, including Wet Leg.

Lava heralded a hallucinogenic new era with their 2022 EP Hi-Fidelity, a mellow collection of breezy, trippy funk. On STARFACE, they lean further into that psychedelic sensibility, this time with bolder, braver melodies and a flair for the dramatic. The record hangs around a concept—an alien lands on Earth and learns about the destructive nature of human relationships (or as La Rue puts it, a “lesbian Ziggy Stardust”)—but following the narrative isn’t really necessary to enjoy the record’s plush, omnivorous sonic world. Written and recorded between London and L.A., the record has its feet on the rain-spattered concrete of La Rue’s childhood homes and its head in sunny California skies: Flecks of drum’n’bass and ska bump shoulders with soul, funk, and R&B.

In keeping with La Rue’s collaborative spirit, STARFACE is full of features. Their NiNE8 peers take turns offering uneven but spirited verses on the bass-driven “Fluorescent Beyond Space”; Biig Piig’s feather-light delivery over a rush of Tame Impala-style synths makes a particularly dreamy impression. La Rue also looks outside the collective for creative input, conjuring a queer fantasy with K-indie star So Yoon on “INTERPLANETARY HOPPIN,” and romantically reimagining pirate-radio sounds with Malaysian-Irish artist Yunè Pinku on “Second Hand Sadness.” Meanwhile, on the muscular “Poison Cookie,” La Rue recruits New Jersey rapper Audrey Nuna for a rock anthem with real superhero fight montage energy.

Fusing so many voices and genre elements can sometimes feel chaotic, but for the most part, La Rue makes it cohere. At 17 tracks long, STARFACE is hardly short on effervescent musical ideas, but it sags under the weight of its alien metaphors by the time you make it to the woozy outro of “Celestial Destiny.” Some of the record’s more on-the-nose hooks—“So many humans, and where’s the humanity?” La Rue sighs on “Humanity”—don’t live up to the gravitas promised by their sweeping grunge guitars and luxurious vocal layers. But elsewhere, as on the smooth funk of “Better,” which features Californian bedroom-pop star Cuco, La Rue uses that concise, plain-speaking style to distill hard-won wisdom into a perfectly simple pop hook: “It will not feel this way forever.” It’s clear that Lava La Rue’s ambition as an artist burns brightly. Right now, its light and heat is overflowing, a little messy and uncontained; but the stardust is unmistakable.