When I was given the task of reviewing ‘landmark’ I was
immediately intrigued by the fact that the album title is not capitalised. Upon
looking at the track list I found that none of the track titles are capitalised
either. This struck me as being rather pretentious, this is a debut record and
the band are already trying to be different with something that is pointless in
the grand scheme of things (also I’m a writer so the lack of capitalisation
just annoyed me more than anything!). But as soon as the intro track ‘sun
veins’ ends and flows into the summery vibes of ‘way it goes’, the air of
pretence vanishes and you are swept up into the sonic world of Hippo Campus.
This record is full of catchy melodies combined with upbeat
tempos and instrumentation that creates a very summer-y feel throughout the
record. The band are from Minnesota which often has quite a cold climate so it
is impressive that the band can convey that sound effectively without it ever
feeling artificial. This can be attributed to the skilful production on this
record. A lot of the tracks have a fair bit going on but the production makes
it so everything coalesces together nicely to take the music to the next level.
Whether it’s expertly placed tambourines on ‘tuesday’ that accentuate the
chorus or the emphasis on punchy percussion sounds on ‘western kids’, the right
sounds always come to the forefront.
The band employ lyrics about universal themes such as coming
of age, love, and just enjoying what you’ve got in life. All of these will
resonate with younger fans and clearly already have done as Hippo Campus have
garnered a dedicated fanbase in the short time they’ve been making music. They
even have a song called ‘vines’ which just shows how of their time they are.
There are some negatives however. Some of the tracks are
completely unnecessary, ‘simple season’ is a worse version of ‘vines’ and
‘interlude’ is totally self-indulgent and ruins the flow of the record. The
lead singer is also trying to do his best Matt Healy impression at times and
the band as a whole take a little too much influence from The 1975. Hippo Campus
are talented though as they’ve shown on this record by deftly combining
elements of dream pop, chillwave, and indie rock to create an enjoyable,
multifaceted album that is a great soundtrack to a sunny day. I’m excited to
see how they mature as a band and what direction they take for their next
record, as they could go for one of many.