The Fiery Furnaces, the brother-and-sister duo of Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger, were always a band out of time. During the 2000s, they hopscotched from conceptual prog to divisive performance art, only occasionally devoting themselves to the whimsical melodic strengths that helped them break through as indie eccentrics. Returning after a decade-plus hiatus, their music remains just as inscrutable; they still sound like no one but themselves.

“Down at the So and So on Somewhere,” their woozy and meandering comeback single, is purposefully dense and occasionally hilarious. Over what sounds like a malfunctioning keyboard demo—a suggestion that they haven’t updated their gear since debarking the Blueberry Boat—Eleanor Friedberger sings about trigonometry tutors who dance; about text messages without words; about time warps and sleeping dogs. While her solo records have proven Friedberger to be one of her generation’s sharpest singer-songwriters, this collaborative mystery tale is a welcome return to the bizarre.