Based in Saint Paul, MN, indie chameleons Hippo Campus have been handily winning over live crowds and confounding expectations since the early 2010s. Their kaleidoscopic albums and EPs commingle eccentric pop-rock (“Way It Goes”) and left-of-center experiments that integrate R&B and dance-music elements (“Bambi,” “baseball”). Their songs foreground rhythmically knotty vocal hooks that are as catchy as they are pyrotechnic—evidence of vocalist Jake Luppen’s operatic training—and integrate irreverent references to pop culture (“Sex Tape”) and playful non sequiturs.