"South" is the titular single from Minnesota-based indie rock band Hippo Campus' second EP, which was released in October last year. As many music journalists have noted, the youthful quartet are jovial, cheerful and laid back in an off-stage setting - but their music demonstrates a suprising maturity and intelligence that makes them seem wise beyond their years (the quartet formed their band during their last year at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists).
By virtue of Jake Luppen's evocative vocals (and cooing) and drummer drummer Whistler Allen's progressive drum beat, the song presents a lyrical bildungsroman that fleshes out the expectations that adults impose on adolescents:
'Three leagues down the soft side of where you left myGold rose crown, you broke down, and left me with aChest hum, a black gun, and forty dollarsChest hum, a black gun, and forty dollarsThree weeks down, I drowned myself in whiskeyCame back round, drowned out, and left me with aChest hum, a black gun, and forty dollarsChest hum, a black gun, and forty dollarsStreetlights talk the same way my mother told meI walk the same way my father told meBack straight, chest out, just like a soldierBack straight, chest out, just like a soldierWise men talk the same way my mother told meI walk the same way my father told meBack straight, chest out, just like a soldierBack straight, chest out, just like a soldier'
This song doesn't work in the same vein as Simple Plan's "Perfect" or "I'm Just a Kid", where an adolescent emo-rock lyrical persona buckles under the pressure of conforming to the expectations from the adult world. There's some youthful and soulful bravado on display in "South" - a willingness to rise to the challenge, to successfully embody the prideful hope of an older generation (and this is precisely what Hippo Campus is doing for the Minnesota indie music scene). I'm not sure what the refrain 'You go down south, south' means, but it could possibly refer to social and geographic mobility - the band's success means that they will be able to head down south from St Paul to perform at cities like Chicago, New York and Denver (they've already toured with Walk the Moon in the UK).
Hippo Campus' music video production team also seems to be improving; the accompanying (understatedly beautiful and simple) music video is their best one yet:
"Then finally with “South” we were able to get it the way we liked it. Someone that we like a lot came out with a great treatment and really nailed the little idea that we had, the feeling that we had and the vibe. They made it look like a high production than it was, with a drone camera and everything. It was geared less towards the meaning of the song and more of creating a series of images that fit the vibe of the song instead of dealing with the words and the meaning" (Whistler Allen, , 2015).
