As any artist will attest, inspiration can hit you at the most random moments. For Ingrid Michaelson, The Muse visited her in 2017 in the middle of an airplane ride. She began writing poems from the perspective of a few characters from Netflix’s throwback sci-fi/horror drama, Stranger Things. The poems were then transformed with melodies that would later become Stranger Songs (due summer 2019, Cabin 24 Records), an album of original tracks independent from, but inspired by, the series. “I’ve already made seven records. I have a lot to say, but I feel like I’ve said so much from the brain and mind and soul of Ingrid Michaelson,” she explains. “I wanted to create something through a different lens.” So Ingrid transformed her obsession with the throwback sci-fi/horror drama Stranger Things into Stranger Songs, a reflection on the human condition—that also happens to be filled with Easter eggs from the TV show. Yet the album remains universal, most of it sweetly tapping into romance as nostalgia, beginning with its first single, the flirty, palpitating “Missing You.” “There’s something about Stranger Things that’s really comforting. It reminds me of my childhood,” Ingrid says. “It’s the best kind of escapism.”