Hippo Campus - LP3 [CD]

In the years between 2018s BAMBI and LP3 Minneapolis Hippo Campus -- made up of vocalistguitarists Jake Luppen and Nathan Stocker drummer Whistler Allen bassist Zach Sutton and trumpeter DeCarlo Jackson -- has grown up and into itself. Although the five-piece has been friends since middle school and put out a number of studio releases since its inception its the new record LP3 thats the most honest portrait of who Hippo Campus is. Its also a study in the nuances of growing up -- coming to terms with mortality the confusing journey of sexuality bottoming out seeing decisions from the night before in the harsh morning light finding your identity as a person and as an artist -- how that can be a collision of elation and shame painful and joyful all at once. LP3 marks a sort of ego death -- and ultimately feeling okay with that. So much of LP3 was written in the chasm between grappling with the value of your own art and the larger chaotic context of the world. It traverses the end of relationships of careers and the chance of meeting yourself as a brand new person. If you take the signifier of musician away what does it mean? And how do you expand your identity outside of work? Here its something the band works through. And in the end it happens with the same ride-or-die crew at your back to hold you down -- or up -- the entire time. Over the last few years the Hippo universe has expanded outward. Luppen and Stocker both put out solo records as Lupin and Brotherkenzie respectively and the two also teamed up with Caleb Hinz to put out the debut Baby Boys record while DeCarlo Jackson founded and collaborated with multiple bands around the Twin Cities including DNM Arlo and FPA. Navigating solo projects and new dynamics and the spotlight alone is humbling bringing up new insecurities and defense mechanisms. It was challenging in its own way to branch outside of Hippo -- and it made the eventual return to the project feel like coming home. With LP3 Hippo felt like a very safe space to express those things because you have your best friends around you rallying behind you Luppen says. And each person could chime in with their own experience. I felt like it was a very safe space to be earnest. Here Hippo Campus killed what they knew and started again. Death in all its metaphorical and lyrical forms looms across the record. Album opener 2 Young to Die sets this up most explicitly the push-and-pull of simultaneously weighing mortality and invincibility of youth of wanting to kill parts of yourself and be born anew Bang Bang a fan favorite from the live set explores the death knell of a long-time fizzled-out long-distance relationship while Blew Its captures the same chaotic burst of energy in Maggie Nelsons prose-poem book and Semi-Pro a pop gem explicitly charts the death of a career the meaningless of fame how dreams change. What Hippo Campus wanted with LP3 was something all five of them could agree on the way theyd made music in the early days of the band. As their profile grew they found themselves compromising on their visions thinking about how fans would interact with their music and plagued by an unsustainable industry ecosystem. Now they just wanted unity. Luppen explains Songwriting-wise we wanted to place a priority on more personal lyrics and more self-referential storytelling as opposed to larger concepts like we did on Landmark and Bambi. In that way its similar to what we did on the [Bad Dream Baby] EP but in a more earnest way. The priority was on finding the feeling that we had in the early days - when we were really happy making music you know. Theres so much insinecre bullshit in this climate thats making everything more and more confusing Stocker adds. So being able to distill something down to what it really means in a way thats really accessible and honest and earnest was definitely definitely the goal. They also give enormous credit to producer Caleb Hinz (Baby Boys Samia Miloe) for his hand in shaping the album. A rising St. Paul producer and another friend since high school Hinz is a relatively new name in the studio but someone who ultimately had the biggest influence. He put long hours into the record and left his fingerprints all over its production -- the distorted drums on 2 Young to Die the drumkit on Boys crafted on a literal trash kit of garbage cans pots and pans or Listerine where Allen was playing inside of a makeshift blanket fort. Aside from his experimentation and long hours spent tinkering with the sounds he also served as a rallying call for the band pulling them back on track an encouraging and confident force who helped shepherd the band into the best version of itself. Luppen also explains it was the first time Hippo Campus as a concept got to be dead. There was an open timeline no tour lined up no necessity to lean into the grid -- just breathing room and the experience of their last five years as a band naturally exposing itself. The five-piece wrote somewhere in the ballpark of 35 songs for the record the most theyd written for an album since their debut Landmark. They joke that it was a return to form in quantity over quality -- but in a way its true. They had the time to simply write to expel a sonic catharsis and then use their honed incisive editing tools to put the best ten songs on the record. Its finally the album that we always admired from other artists Stocker says. Its just airtight. LP3 is then their strongest and most complete work yet -- a freshly-inked portrait excavating young adulthood and identity and more importantly how that personal identity fits into a larger camaraderie. It looks at how growing up can just feel like something thats always moving past you when youre trying to grab a hold of it its a push-and-pull of letting go or holding tighter -- and figuring out what matters the most. Through cinematic sonic clarity LP3 is a sweeping account of courage and tenacity tender-hearted stumbling that leads you on the right path after all.