It was quite clear to all that attended, or live-streamed, the show at The Riviera on Friday night, that Hippo Campus was ushering in a new sound.

“2 Young 2 Die” opens with atmospheric keyboards, triggered beats, and a healthy dose of autotune on Jake Luppen’s voice, which we started to hear on his solo record, Lupin, and we’d continue to hear throughout the night.

Quickly they revert to their guitar-driven style with “Ashtray,” and this feels more akin to what we are used to. The pop of “Bad Dream Baby” gives way to more drum loops and autotune on “Blew Its,” both of which I could do without, simply because their catalog is so deep.

Halfway through “Semi-Pro”, there is a medical emergency inside the Riv, and it seems a fan has passed out. The boys restart the song after a crowd request to “play it again,” to which Lupin replies (for the second time), “This one’s about sports!” While I enjoy sports and small doses of this song, it just feels too easy for a band who wrote the likes of “South.”

“Bang Bang” is growing on me and I love “Sex Tape,” it’s super fun, but at this point, it seems that some of the musicality is lost amongst the autotune and the guitars as they become washed away with other noise. Thank god for the trumpet playing of DeCarlo Jackson who brought a seriousness and legitimacy to many of these new tunes.

It’s hard to remember that these guys are still basically kids and that they should be having fun, otherwise there wouldn’t be any new music for us to look forward to.

“We’ve entered the chill part of the set,” says Lupin. “So if you’ve got’em, smoke’em. Smoke’em, if you got’em.” “Listerine,” was the highlight of the night for me. It’s an incredibly beautiful love song, wherein Lupin exclaims, “You can’t wash the fucked up out of me tonight/No matter how hard you try.”

Lupin opens himself bare for the whole world to see, and his band gives him a subtle but colorful canvas to paint over. As a fan, I want more of these moments, this is the band I love. While he did use autotune on his vocals, the melody and instrumentation were on par with some of Hippo’s best.

Now it’s time for the band to “play some old ones,” like “Warm Glow,” which sounds big and soothing. “The Way It Goes” and “South” are played to raucous cheers, and then we finally get “Boys,” which is the best song on their latest album, LP3. “Deepfake” contains one of the more memorable moments of the night as the whole band gets in on the fun and sings, “You’re cool, you’re really on a roll/I want to be like you when I get older.”

Another of my favorite moments was the retro-sounding “Where To Now,” where Nathan takes the lead, and they all back him up. It reminds me of The Psychedelic Furs, or The Cure, and feels like a product of their early musical influences.

I can’t exit this post without mentioning, “Understand,” which feels like a church hymn or a prayer being sung. This is the future of Hippo, soulful and grown-up. But I don’t want them to grow up quite yet, I like them making sex tapes, and experimenting with different sounds. Let’s put off the parent trap for a few more records, and let them imbibe in creativity and joyfulness.

Though they ended with incredible versions of “Bambi,” and “Buttercup,” it’s apparent that things done changed, and that’s ok…for now.

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