Hippo Campus Drop Long Awaited Third Album LP3
LP3 is the culmination of 9 years of Hippo Campus, it is the journey to where they are today, and the fans that they’ve brought along with them. I first listened to the band in 2017 when their breakout hit ‘South’ was recommended to me on the YouTube sidebar. I was drawn in by lead singer Jake Luppen’s versatile vocals, guitarist Nathan Stocker’s twinkling riffs, bassist Zach Sutton’s driving basslines, and drummer Whistler Allen’s hypnotic drums.
These aspects that made me love the band are still here in LP3 but joined by qualities gained in other works, like the synthesised sounds of second album Bambi and the deep-dive electronic soundscapes of recent EP Good Dog, Bad Dream. This is the basis of the album: growth and the process of maturing while staying true to yourself.
Kicking off with a public safety announcement against faux-adolescent confidence, opening track ‘2 Young 2 Die’ builds from a lone horn from trumpet player DeCarlo Jackson up into one of my favourite choruses of the album featuring ethereal vocals, uber-compressed drums and synths that rival tracks from Bambi. Jackson and Stocker shine on this album. Trumpet and guitar riffs no longer give each other space as was the case on previous records, now they interplay beautifully; twirling and lacing in and out of sync with the perfection of prima ballerinas, most impressively heard in ‘Scorpio’.
I’d like to stop and take time to give a special mention to one of my top tracks of the album, ‘Bang Bang’. It uses stop time accents and polyrhythmic vocals, two of my top 5 musical techniques that I’m a complete sucker for. I’m excited to see the band live in May to see who sings the other of the two interlocking vocal lines in the last chorus with Luppen after I surprisingly learnt Allen and Stocker sing when I saw the band in Newcastle back in 2019. On the stops, they work flawlessly to enhance the drop into the chorus. For the entire album, the band have masterfully utilised volume changes to transform incredibly sparse sections into massive stadium filling soundscapes.
Closing the album is my favourite track, ‘Understand’. Reminiscent of ‘Buttercup’ which ended first album Landmark, ‘Understand’ melds old and new sounds, completing the maturation that the album embarked on. “I don’t care what we are, it just has to work / Where we end is something far / Something hard to understand” says Luppen in the chorus, reaching an acceptance of powerlessness against the future but promising to live happily in the moment. The best sound on the record is what seems like something falling off the drum kit at the start of the guitar solo, it could be skilful drumming from Allen or a lucky sample of a tumble in the studio. Whatever it is, it’s so satisfying to listen to – trust the process. Listening to that sound so much also lets me listen to Stocker’s guitar solo, a soft, shimmering masterpiece. This is Hippo Campus at their best.
LP3 is out on streaming platforms everywhere, go check it out. The band are embarking on their postponed UK tour in May, visiting Manchester, Glasgow, and London.
Words by Joe R