Way It Goes

"Way It Goes" is Landmark's most immediate song and its most quietly resigned. The guitars ring in bright, chiming intervals over a drum part that never settles into a simple backbeat, and the arrangement keeps opening up — sudden space, then a rush back in — which mirrors the lyric's rhythm of denial and admission. Jake Luppen sings near the top of his range with a slightly frayed edge, pushing hard enough that you hear effort, which gives the resignation in the words some friction. The subject is a relationship or friendship dissolving through nobody's decision: the title's shrug is a defense mechanism, and the song keeps failing to sustain it. BJ Burton's production leaves the drums dry and forward while smearing the guitars, so the track feels simultaneously precise and washed out. It became the band's signature — a live staple that a room full of people shout back — and it's a good example of why Hippo Campus landed with a young audience in 2017: the music is exuberant enough to dance to while the words are about accepting loss. It suits a summer night outdoors with people you're about to be separated from, and works just as well alone the following week.