The Minneapolis-based band Hippo Campus's fourth album Flood is the best album they have ever made. But to arrive at this pivotal point of collective self-confidence, the group of four childhood friends first had to sigh, surrender and start over. They cleaned the slate and dropped all preconceptions of how they thought they had to sound. Less than two weeks later, singer Jake Luppen, guitarist Nathan Stocker, drummer Whistler Allen and bassist Zach Sutton emerged with Flood.

Sitting at the intersection of vulnerability and urgency, the new album filters all-encompassing feelings through the type of absorbing arrangements and massive hooks that can only be pulled off by a group of friends who have been speaking the same musical and emotional language since they were kids. Flood shows how four people connected so intimately for so long can evolve as individuals, while preserving the bond that makes what they do together so special.