Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – 1998
This one is a classic in the indie-rock space. If I was asked about my top 10 favorite albums, this would definitely be on that list. While I’ve always been an instrumentally-heavy music fan, there’s something addictive about the lyrics built on the beautiful and out-of-the-norm vocal melodies Jeff Mangum created. This 1998 album is intoxicating and draws you in as a listener. Its production is raw and analog. The instrumentation is diverse and balanced. One track leads so well into the next. Aeroplane is just an incredibly solid album.
Many articles have been written trying to decipher just what the album is about. The coming-of-age sexual awakenings, domestic violence, religious fanaticism, and tarot card readings can leave listeners scratching their heads. Then throw in Anne Frank. Nostalgia and abstract surrealism fill each track but it doesn’t take away from the emotional impact. I’ve always leaned more toward the notion of it being a depiction and recollection of adolescence, and the need to develop one’s own identity; the ever-changing, ever-clever mind of youth in search of self.
Musically it’s diverse. The folk roots are apparent but its style draws from punk, eastern European folk, circus music, psychedelia, and jazz. Accordion, drums, and distorted guitars are paired with shortwave radio, singing saw, uilleann pipes, and zanzithophone in the lo-fi production. Textures and structure are of chief importance while Mangum’s vocals dance from breathless whispers to belting to the skies above. It’s obvious that reigning in that voice was a challenge. However, there’s balance and warmth in the mix.
I’ll link the Allmusic review below, but there have been so many well-written in-depth articles including multiple Pitchfork pieces (giving the album a rare 10/10.) This is particularly true since it just passed 25 years since its initial release. If you’re unfamiliar with it or it’s been a while since you’ve dug your nails into it, do it. You won’t regret it.
Perhaps best likened to a marching band on an acid trip, Neutral Milk Hotel's second album is another quixotic sonic parade; lo-fi yet lush, impenetrable yet wholly accessible, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is either the work of a genius or an utter crackpot, with the truth probably falling somewhere in between. Again teaming with producer Robert Schneider, Jeff Mangum invests the material here with new maturity and clarity; while the songs run continuously together, as they did on the previous On Avery Island, there is a much clearer sense of shifting dynamics from track to track, with a greater emphasis on structure and texture. Mangum's vocals are far more emotive as well; whether caught in the rush of spiritual epiphany ("The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two and Three") or in the grip of sexual anxiety ("Two-Headed Boy"), he sings with a new fervor, composed in equal measure of ecstasy and anguish. However, as his musical concepts continue to come into sharper focus, one hopes his stream-of-consciousness lyrical ideas soon begin to do the same; while Mangum spins his words with the rapid-fire intensity of a young Dylan, the songs are far too cryptic and abstract to fully sink in -- In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is undoubtedly a major statement, but just what it's saying is anyone's guess.
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