The follow-up to the acclaimed debut album by the group, Endless Scroll (2018), and the 2019 EP Shiny New Model, Broken Equipment was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the art-punk incendiaries from Brooklyn gathered with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. Passionate debates that lasted late into the night became a regular event, motivating the band to become as ideologically unified as the heavy tomes they were reading. Broken Equipment is BODEGA's attempt to question the external factors that make them who they are. The 12 songs on the album unfold in present-day New York City, referencing contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself.