On one of the most eccentric yet most loved indie bands - the Jeff Mangum-led Neutral Milk Hotel.
NMH's debut 'On Avery Island' did justice to their eccentricity, but not their musical ability. It was soft, fuzzy music with strange, silly lyrics expressing surreal, cryptic ideas - but it wasn't coherent enough, it wasn't chaotic enough, it wasn't emotionally mature enough. It wasn't Mangum-ish enough.
Not that coherence and chaos are complementary, or that emotion and depth are demanded of soft, silly music to begin with. Ostensibly, we are dealing with opposites here. The oddball mind, or rather the astute genius of Jeff Mangum did however bring all of these qualities out in the musical roller-coaster that is In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, NMH's masterpiece.
Essentially a concept album (though what the concept is is anybody's guess), the album's 11 songs are flush with everything that On Avery Island lacked. Lo-fi fuzz rock - driven by rich acoustic guitars playing no more than 4 simple chords and incorporating musical saws, trumpets, accordions and horns. A marching band on an acid trip. Fueled by the indomitable Mangum's raw emotive energy that envelops, comforts and impassions you like a snuggly eiderdown. The lyrics packaged in these irresistible melodies are cryptic yet accessible, nonsensical yet meaningful, bizarre yet familiar. Classic Mangum, classic Neutral Milk Hotel.
Thematically, Aeroplane talks about the light anguishes of adolescence, fleetingness of life or just about anything in the universe. It all depends on how you view Mangum's view of the world. The lyrics do however make a lot of references to the legendary Anne Frank. Indeed, legend has it that one fine day Jeff Mangum read The Diary Of Anne Frank and was moved like never before.
Aeroplane is essentially the product of Mangum's romanticism of Anne Frank. The love child of Mangum and Anna's ghost, if I may and if you will.
Everything about Neutral Milk Hotel lies in the realm of the eccentric.
Take their name for example - three words from the English language which even a randomised word generator would find difficult to bring together.
Or the fact that they disbanded soon after ballooning into popularity (following the release of their second and final album 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea') due to Jeff Mangum's nervous breakdown. Mangum, it seemed, was alienated from his music because of the attention he was getting, and took to being a recluse instead of embracing the fandom.
Not to mention that their music is some of the oddest you'll ever experience. Like a curio at a museum which can only be gawked at in awe but never be comprehended.
Listen to this, the 2 min opening track of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. It's called 'The King Of Carrot Flowers, part 1' and talks about moms sticking forks into dads' shoulders and dads dreaming of different ways to die. Don't look at me like that, I told you NMH were nutcases right from the start.
Listen to this, the 2 min opening track of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. It's called 'The King Of Carrot Flowers, part 1' and talks about moms sticking forks into dads' shoulders and dads dreaming of different ways to die. Don't look at me like that, I told you NMH were nutcases right from the start.
This is either madness... or brilliance, isn't it?
It's remarkable how often these two traits coincide. (Jack Sparrow would concur)
This is exactly how I felt after listening to all of 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.' This was either the work of an advanced genius or that of an utter bonghead. NMH were either out of their minds or simply ahead of their time. How about both? Okay? Okay.
It did produce this gem of a song, though. (Lyrics)
Essentially a concept album (though what the concept is is anybody's guess), the album's 11 songs are flush with everything that On Avery Island lacked. Lo-fi fuzz rock - driven by rich acoustic guitars playing no more than 4 simple chords and incorporating musical saws, trumpets, accordions and horns. A marching band on an acid trip. Fueled by the indomitable Mangum's raw emotive energy that envelops, comforts and impassions you like a snuggly eiderdown. The lyrics packaged in these irresistible melodies are cryptic yet accessible, nonsensical yet meaningful, bizarre yet familiar. Classic Mangum, classic Neutral Milk Hotel.
Thematically, Aeroplane talks about the light anguishes of adolescence, fleetingness of life or just about anything in the universe. It all depends on how you view Mangum's view of the world. The lyrics do however make a lot of references to the legendary Anne Frank. Indeed, legend has it that one fine day Jeff Mangum read The Diary Of Anne Frank and was moved like never before.
"I would go to bed every night and have dreams about having a time machine and somehow I'd have the ability to move through time and space freely, and save Anne Frank. Do you think that's embarrassing?" - Mangum in an interview with Puncture Magazine
Having said that, trying to give meaning to any of these 11 songs is an exercise in futility. We are touring Mangum's universe in a synthetic flying machine, guided by the man himself. A world wrapped in gold silver sleeves, covered in semen-stained mountaintops where it is strange to be anything at all. Mangum's imagery is ridiculous (With pulleys and weights / creating a radio played just for two / In the parlor with a moon across her face), sometimes depressing (The only girl I've ever loved / was born with roses in her eyes / but then they buried her alive) and totally out of this world (God is a place / Where some holy spectacle lies) but undeniably beautiful. Tugging at, playing with the fragility of our heartstrings. Soft, silly music IS meaningful, magical.
Neutral Milk Hotel haven't released anything original since Aeroplane, have reunited a few times and rare Jeff Mangum sightings at obscure places are reported once a while. For all we know, Mangum is busy building his time machine to save Anne Frank from the clutches of the Nazis (or has he already done so?).
Here's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in its curious entirety. Enjoy!
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