Hippy
Falling in Love with Being Alive
(Hippy)

A funky electric and chunky beat of “Consistently Inconsistent” begins Glasgow-based duo Hippy’s Falling in Love with Being Alive. Singer Paul Hipson and guitarist Hugh Frizell take a chunky stab at their view of the world here…and it’s damn fun.

There is a sweet acoustic guitar strum and picking at the beginning “(Trying to Count The) Fish in the Sea.” About mid-way here, Frizell once again manages some great lead playing, key plopping, and handclaps that add just the perfect beat.

The title track presents more acoustic and electric mixing. I love the full commercial production on this one; it’s a solid sweet song about searching for love. Maybe the best tune here.

The deeper one gets into these dozen, the more colors one finds with which these two are painting. “For Every Mountain, There’s a Climb” starts with some wonderful vocalizing, then rolls into a U2-like guitar beat and snapping snare. Again, Hippy changes things up a bit; I love how they deliver so many different styles but always remain, well…Hippy. This one gets your feet tapping for sure.

We get another solid rockin’ commercial stab with the second to last tune, “Destination Alienation.” At about the six-minute mark, the guys lift this one into a Stone’s-like jangly rocker (pretty much all on the shoulders of Frizell’s wonderful guitar layering); I just love, again, how these guys shoot things off into another direction I did not see coming.

The acoustic ballad “Nothing Lasts Forever” pushes forward once again the sense of urgency of life that Hippy has all too often tried to put across on Falling in Love with Being Alive. It also presents one of this albums’ best vocals.