![]() ![]() How different does the lead-up to this second album feel? Jake, I saw you recently compare it to having a second child - that you know what to expect now. We sat down with the band’s “core four” - Stocker, Luppen, bassist Zach Sutton, and drummer Whistler Allen, along with their de facto fifth member, horn player DeCarlo Jackson - and just as we began a wide-ranging conversation at Brooklyn watering hole Spuyten Duyvil, what song should come on, but Mott The Hoople’s ageless anthem “All The Young Dudes.” Perfect. Ten days before Bambi’s birth, Hippo Campus came to New York for promo and an intimate album preview gig. That’s changed, on tracks like “Doubt,” “Honesty,” “Why Even Try” and a remarkably atmospheric, almost post-rock opener “Mistakes.” Hippo Campus have never been shy about dealing with “big” questions - growing up, masculinity, misogyny, divorce and even death have all been explored in past songs - but a Midwestern reticence for heart-on-the-sleeve sharing has kept Luppen, until now, from delving too deeply into relationships, of the big and small “r” varieties. Dealing with internecine tension - giving voice to papered-over issues within the band and in Luppen’s own romantic relationship - figures prominently on the record. It’s named after Luppen’s aunt, whose cabin-styled lake house has figured prominently in Hippo Campus’ history, as a place for writing, recalibrating, and mending fences when there was band strife going on. ![]() Released last month and accompanied by a gorgeous, Kyle Sauer-directed surrealistic video, “Bambi” is a soulful musing on “serving” oneself - opening up to those closest to you - that’s especially meaningful to the band. Yet, this grand finale feels like a resolution, and even if nothing is crystal clear, the future of possibilities is linked within a world of love and change.There’s no better evidence of the turn than the album’s title track. Because as the album comes to a close, “Understand” gives off the bittersweet feeling of love, hope and the dark thoughts that can be intertwined with these overwhelmingly positive feelings. The feeling of acceptance of who you are seems to get stronger with every song that passes through, cultivating at the end. ![]() LP3 uses a smooth development through the passage of the album, yet, the feeling of despair, being lost and ultimately optimism and faith are felt in every sliver of the record. “Kissing boys, missing work / Got hungover from your words / Same New York, it’s the worst / All these nights are a blur / Going broke, make it rain / Ain’t got nobody to blame / All this time down the drain / I’m the best at insane,” are repeated during the song as it steeps into the listener's psyche, as it most definitely will relate to many in a similar position. Therefore, its nature of a light existential crisis is prevalent. “Boys”, one of the more upbeat tracks, uses its happy façade to distract us from the feeling of loss, and the overwhelming realisation that you don’t exactly belong in the party scene anymore. However, the Minnesota-based band’s transition to a more experimental way of making music doesn’t provide a leeway for them to become more vague and ambiguous, rather, they have gotten more personal in LP3, often seen to be shouting out their deepest darkest thoughts.
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