New York, NY (Top40 Charts) With the release of new single "Forget It," Hippo Campus share another glorious preview of the best album they have ever made. Out September 20th on Psychic Hotline (Sylvan Esso), Flood is both a superlative record and striking rebirth for a band of four best friends. They have spoken the same musical and emotional language since they were kids, all while surpassing a billion streams, selling out historic venues, headlining festival stages and attempting to navigate success and imposter syndrome through irresistible, hook-heavy hits that split the difference between sophisticated and satisfying. Singer Jake Luppen, guitarist Nathan Stocker, drummer Whistler Allen and bassist Zach Sutton learned to grow up by letting go, so after setting out to create their most profound LP to date - writing 100+ songs, getting sober, maintaining a regular routine of group therapy, and then realizing they didn't actually like what they were making - they scrapped five years of work, dropped all preconceptions, started over and poured their most unguarded feelings into tracks like "Forget It."
With "Forget It," the band asks: "Do you remember falling in love? Who spoke first? What were you wearing? Does it play in your head like a movie, or was it all over in a single moment? However it was that your love story unfolded, and however you remember it, it's meaningful…even if you forget the whole thing someday."
"Forget It" follows recent singles and music videos for "Everything at Once," "Tooth Fairy" and "Paranoid," which was just the #1 most-added song at both Triple A and College Radio. In the past weeks, the tracks have collectively earned more than three million streams, while tens of thousands of fans have seen them live during standout sets at Lollapalooza, Hinterland, Governors Ball, a gig with Killer Mike and more.
Recorded in just 10 days on the Texas border's Sonic Ranch, and produced by Caleb Wright (Charly Bliss, Samia) and Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee), Flood shows how four people connected so closely for so long can evolve as individuals, while preserving the bond that makes what they do together so special. Amplified by the whiplash of adulthood, the album's 13 songs form a map of what it's like to experience everything at once: death and dejection, addiction and anxiety, dreams and nightmares, self-criticism and self-forgiveness, empowerment and falling short of expectations, failed relationships and new ones that will last a lifetime. It's all translated into melodies and arrangements that match vulnerability with urgency, and existential questions with endless propulsion. The mantra in the studio was forward momentum, no second guessing or listening back, even when revelatory lyrics like "Forget It" reminisce on a love lost and found, and the epiphany that what happened in one moment will last forever.
Tomorrow, August 14th, Hippo Campus will ratify their Twin Cities roots, when all four members throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Target Field, for the Minnesota Twinshome game versus the Kansas City Royals. The band then returns to the road for a SOLD-OUT run of intimate performances celebrating the release of Flood next month. Dates include LA's Troubadour, San Francisco's The Independent, Minneapolis' First Avenue, NYC's Bowery Ballroom and DC's The Atlantis, with much more to be announced soon. Find details and tickets at hippocampus.band/#tour.
Listen to "Forget It" via Psychic Hotline and watch the song's visual, featuring a series of polaroids from the making of Flood:
Hippo Campus Tour Dates:
9/15 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
9/17 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
9/19 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
9/22 - Richmond, VA - Iron Blossom Music Festival
9/24 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
9/25 - Washington, DC - The Atlantis
10/5 - Decorah, IA - Luther College
12/4 - London, UK - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire