Running With The Hurricane [Neon Violet] (LP), Camp Cope, Vinyl

Running With The Hurricane finds Camp Cope on the other side of a storm. The third LP from Melbourne trio Georgia Maq, Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and Sarah Thompson is about what happens after chaos hits; when you’ve walked through the fire and come out stronger, calmer and happier than ever before.

The band’s last album, 2018’s How To Socialise And Make Friends, put Camp Cope under an intense spotlight. That release allowed the trio to say what they needed to but both professionally and in their personal lives, they’re in a very different place this time around. On Running With The Hurricane, Maq (songwriter, vocals, piano, acoustic & electric guitar), Hellmrich (bass guitar) and Thompson (drums) are older, wiser and happier. It’s an album that is gentler than what they have done before, more positive and more at peace with the universe. Because as Georgia Maq sings on the album’s title track, sometimes “The only way out is up”.

While the Big Stuff of this album is all about growth, overcoming and pushing through the pain, the little details are still quintessentially Camp Cope. Running With The Hurricane reflects on faltered romances, secret crushes and vibrating with the confidence that makes you feel like you’re on fire. It’s about taking comfort in knowing who you are, feeling yourself and returning, always, to the city of Melbourne.