In the years following the release of Here Come The Rattling Trees, bandleader Sean O’Hagan put the band on hold, focusing on solo material (resulting in 2019’s excellent Radum Calls, Radum Calls) and a reunion with Microdisney, when disaster struck: “I fell ill with cancer. When that happens, you don’t know whether you’re going to make another record again, but you do recover and slowly you’re back. I decided I would make the record I always wanted to make”.

O’Hagan’s listening at the time was dominated by the likes of Tyler, The Creator, Solange and other artists pushing the boundaries of hip-hop and R&B, and while Radum Calls, Radum Calls featured electronic elements, working with Fryars on his 2021 album God Melodies inspired him to fully wholeheartedly embrace these influences on his next album.

The result was 2024’s Hey Panda, an album that represented possibly the most radical left turn the Llamas have taken in their entire career. While the songwriting remained distinctively Llamas, the sound was a complete 180 from anything the band had done before, with drum machines and auto-tune vocals dominating the record. O’Hagan’s daughter Livvy provided vocals throughout the album, whose lyrics on the album range from the lighthearted to the existential, touching on everything from learning difficulties on “The Grade” to mortality on “Fall Off The Mountain”.

Hey Panda was released by Drag City in March 2024 and received significant critical acclaim, becoming one of the best-reviewed albums of the year and ended up on several end-of-year lists. The band also set out on their first tour in several years to promote the album in February 2025.