Hippo Campus — Good Dog, Bad Dream — EP Review
Alternative| Indie | Rock | Pop
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
I haven’t ventured that far into the discography of Minnesota indie-rock 5-piece Hippo Campus. However, I recall first hearing of the band through their 2018 sophomore album Bambi, and in particular, its title track.
I believe that this was most likely in the lead-up to me seeing the band live, at Brighton’s Concorde 2 in February of 2019. This was on behalf of the ex-music magazine turned radio station Brightonsfinest, and was amongst some of the last live reviews to be published on their site.
Despite me knowing little about them before that live show, I did genuinely enjoy the live experience Hippo Campus had put on at Concorde 2. It was a great opportunity for me to see just how well each of the 5 members worked together.
You can read my live review of Hippo Campus’ show here.
That being said, I wanted to dive deeper into any future projects they may have, going forward. My chance to do so arrived this year, which came in the form of their brand new EP, Good Dog, Bad Dream.
Before I did so, however, I thought I’d get into the Hippo Campus spirit of things, by having one more skim-over of their sophomore album. And I have to say, Bambi is a truly beautiful sounding album. Rarely has an indie album felt as grand as that one.
But I could tell from my skim-over of Good Dog, Bad Dream, that we would be in for something different. The EP contains a total of 5 tracks and has a runtime of just over 15 minutes; a good duration for an EP. That being said, I felt that it was enough to bring this new stylistic approach to life.
Upon my full listen, however, the stylistic change, unfortunately, fell short of a step forward in my mind.
Without sounding too harsh, the initial part of this EP begins with Hippo Campus losing semblance of the unique style they established on Bambi, and instead proceed to sound more like a knock-off of The 1975. Tracks like “Bad Dream Baby” and “Deepfake” brought forward that cheesy, quirky style of pop that doesn’t sit well with me at the best of times. However, I don’t feel that it represented the band well at all.
Following those two tracks, we then get the third single “Sex Tape”. It felt fitting that this track was sat in the middle of the project, as I found it to be a very “middle of the road” track. It was ok, but far from anything special. After this comes “Where to Now”, which started as a promising-sounding track, and kind of reminded me a little of Eyedress. However, the track ended up being too repetitive to have my attention after the first minute or so.
Closing things off is the closest thing to a strong track on this entire EP. “Mojo Jojo” stands as the most unique of all the tracks, in my mind, and dips its toes into hyper pop territory, fusing it with their more familiar rock sound. However, it still had some minor musical annoyances throughout.
I’m not sure how, but Good Dog, Bad Dream ended up being a patience-testing experience, despite only being the length of an EP, and it was one of those projects that I, unfortunately, wanted to get out of the way as soon as I could.
Of course, I know that Hippo Campus are not an untalented band in the slightest, but this change of style was a misstep in my opinion. I explained previously that I felt negative reviews were sometimes necessary, to validate the positive ones more. Good Dog, Bad Dream proves that EP’s are not exempt either.
Fair to say, if you enjoyed Bambi, you probably won’t like this EP.
Favourite Track: Mojo Jojo
Least Favourite Tracks: Bad Dream Baby | Deepfake
Grand Jury Music
Enjoyment: ★ | Memorability: ★★ | Atmosphere: ★★
Uniqueness: ★★ | Satisfaction: ★ | Narrative: ★★
