Amazon.com's Best of 1998: Just from the opening seconds of Neutral Milk Hotel's second album, you know it's going to be special: the acoustic guitar strum is catchy beyond belief, and Jeff Magnum's intonation lends credibility even to a line like "When you were young, you were the King of Carrot Flowers." Listening to In the Aeroplane is like stepping through Alice's looking glass; you enter a fantastic new universe that, while it doesn't always make sense logically, feels like the home you never had. --Randy Silver
Amazon.com essential recording: Led by Jeff Magnum, In the Aeroplane over the Sea finds the Neutral Milk Hotel assemblage loosely performing a series of narratives backed by folksy acoustic guitar. But from that springboard, a quiver of instruments (horns, organs, accordions, saws, banjo, zanzithophone, etc.) are layered into a sometimes rootsy, sometimes lo-fi, and often psychedelic mix. Contrary to most pop experimentalists, NMH songs stretch way past the two-minute mark: "Two Headed Boy" transforms from a Guided by Voices-ish romp into a New Orleans big band funeral march, "The Fool" is as catchy as anything Poi Dog Pondering ever produced, and "Holland" builds up to a crescendo of saw, Uillean pipes, a chorus of voices, and fuzzed-out guitar. Simply irresistible. --Jason Verlinde
Disc 1:
The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1
King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 & 3 - Neutral Milk Hotel, Barnes, Jeremy
Some People Will Never Get It A lot of people hate Bob Dylan's voice too, but in so doing, they miss one of the greatest artists of the rock era. Am I comparing Mangum to Dylan? Hell yes I am.
For those who don't get it, just move on to something more accessible to you. But for those who understand, this is one of the best albums of all time, hands down.
One of my favorite albums of all time The lyrics are poignant, the meaning behind them uplifting, the instrumentation frantic and the vocals strained and real. Some people seem to get caught up on the lead singer's voice; so he's not Paul McCartney, but I don't have a problem with it. CSNY didn't want to let Neil Young sing at first either, but he's had one of the longest and most successful musical careers in memory. A simply beautiful album if you have the capacity to listen to it (yes, musical snobbery. Egads!)
GAOAT Greatest Album of All TIME. this album is simply the best album I've ever listened to. I have listened to it once a week for a few years now and don't plan on stopping.
Magnum's opus A quintessential lo-fi masterwork of acoustic power and unrestrained vocal, this highly influential album helped pave the way for the broken-boy aesthetics of Bright Eyes and literate ballads of Decemberists to be the prominent independent music it is today. Sure, some of the production should have been tuned up a bit even if the overall quality of hearing the performance right in front of you is partly why this album still shines bright, but mostly it is because the sincerity and simplicity coupled with thematic ambitions preserved this track listing better then it ought.
A Classic of the Elephant 6 Collective As far as lo-fi goes, this took the sub-genre in a whole new direction. Not for everyone, and you'll be hard-pressed to find hit single potential in any of these early 90's noise pop-rock confections, but the lyrics are strong, with a strong Anne Frank theme throughout. If you enjoy this kind of music, you will fall in love with this album. It's as simple as that!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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Trevor
