Written by Lauren Rosier
The Glasgow, Scotland rock and roll duo, Hippy, is thrilled to announce the release of their new full-length album, “Falling In Love With Being Alive.” The album is now available for purchase and streaming on all major platforms.
Hippy was formed in 2019 and features vocalist Paul Hipson and guitarist Hugh Frizell. The pair met via a mutual acquaintance in Glasgow and hit it off musically.
Hipson is an established singer/songwriter around Glasgow and has created his own fanbase by playing as many gigs as possible. Frizell has been playing music for several years touring, playing live and in the studio, and writing music within blues, rock, and the indie genres.
The new album touches upon “heartfelt emotion” and “human experience.” We all feel. We all have emotions. This is where Hippy comes in.
From Hippy:
“‘Falling In Love With Being Alive’ is an album of so many different layers. It covers hope, fear and both the greatness and absurdity of life, living life and ultimately death. It tackles the pain of anxiety and also longs for comfort.
Paying respect to deaths of different generations whilst remaining loyal to the writers’ musical foundations – it has been made with artistic freedom, honesty and integrity.
This album and the previous one ‘Behind Every Song Is A Story’ (released October ’20) is the culmination of two musicians, their influences and talents meeting by chance in Glasgow in 2019. Prior to that they had no prior knowledge of one another. What has been built upon not even in the space of 2 years is a testament to the adage of never giving up.
The inspiration for many songs on the new album were inspired by love, hate, regret, anger, mourning, sadness, happiness, the blues, melancholy. Every song on this album can trace its roots somewhere back to those in some way. The music is honest and heartfelt and never trying to be something it isn’t. And played with fire and passion and totally from the heart too.”
The full-length disc opens with the track, “Consistently Inconsistent,” an infectious rock track with an excellent guitar riff that will undoubtedly get stuck in your head. “I will always be a slave to you / falling in love just like you want me to do / and I can’t sleep because I’m thinking of you / and I can’t think of the thought of you…” vocalist Paul Hipson sings. There’s something about this that seems familiar, yet so original. I love it.
I really enjoyed the track, “Vicious Circle.” The lyricism in the song was interesting (“tell me you love me / And I’ll tell you it’s a lie”) and the vibe was slightly haunting.
The following track, “(Trying To Count The) Fish In The Sea” is a completely different vibe; it’s much more upbeat, with a great guitar part, and vocals almost reminiscent of Phil Collins. At the end of the song, there’s a really awesome guitar work, which I find just adds to his musicianship.
The album’s title track, “Falling In Love With Being In Alive,” is truly an incredible song. The song itself has more of an indie-folk vibe, but its message is so positive. Life is so, so, so short, and we often take things for granted. I just want to fall in love with life and being alive again. I want that zest for life again. Hipson sings: “Life won’t judge me / So let me feel love’s light one more time in my life…”
The next track, “Be Lucky,” is a guitar-heavy song that seems as though its origins were from the late 60s to early 70s. There’s something very psychedelic about this track. If you’re a guitar enthusiast, this song has some exciting, rockin’ guitar parts in it that will surely get you excited! I think it’s one of the strongest songs on the record and one of my personal favorites.
One of my favorite songs on the record is the track, “Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” It has a bit of a haunting vibe to it. Hipson‘s voice has ever-so-slightly a bit of a raspiness to it throughout the song, as he talks about demons and losing touch with reality. It’s an interesting song. There’s a vocal part that says: “we’re in hell right now, believe me, and, we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us; or, we can fight our way back, into the light, we can climb outta hell. one inch at a time.” It truly gives you something to think about.
Overall, this record is full of excellent tracks that are definitely worth listening to and worth thinking about.
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