Love of Excess

Hippo Campus is no stranger to the indie scene and their first full album, landmark, opens to mostly positive reviews. western kids, the seventh track in the album, opens with:

See how the western kidsHave silicon inside their lipsA mask or an artificeFor the love that their parents giveThe northern girls they play the partWith painted face, they're works of artI swear to god I felt it thenThe perfumed aura of wine and gin 

Genius.com

A boundless trove of meaning can be derived from this stanza of lyrics, starting with how the silicon, an obvious reference to plastic surgery, is a form of expression of love by their parents towards their children. Not only that, it also shows an age where everything is not as it seems, in that, both the literal and the metaphorical plastic surgery is used to hide the truth from the outside world. As the song develops further into the chorus:

I just love this I swear I'll go viralFrom the burbs' to the streets now, it's a revivalThe spirit is found in the idealistically idleThe age of excess[& Stitches]And I just love itI just love itI just love it

Genius.com

Because in the age of the millennial, sometimes, so as long as its from the Internet, and is given without context, it can be loved by the masses and go viral, like cat videos (which I personally enjoy). The spirit could be a reference to the collective consciousness of the masses whom seem to worship and idealize the idealistically idle, hinting quite heavily on famous personas that do, well, nothing at all, hence the idleness.

Now, in the age of excess and plastic surgery, the masses seem love that a great deal.