| On Avery Island | 1996 |
| In The Aeroplane Over The Sea | 1998 |
Despite the fact that this is undoubtedly one of the most awkwardly named bands in music history, Neutral Milk Hotel are (or at least were - I really know nothing of the status of the band at this point, as they've kinda been on 'hiatus' for awhile) also one of the more interesting bands to come out of the mid-late 90's, a period where not that many quality bands have emerged, unfortunately. What their appeal exactly is, though, that's kinda difficult for me to explain - they basically have an odd folksy sort of style that often has indie rock-styled tone to it, with horn parts, overemoting vocals, and often absolutely messed up lyrics being key contributors to the sound. It may not sound that special describing this style on the screen, but the way it all comes together is... odd, but definitely unique sounding and intriguing. Of course, the fact that NMH has (at least to this point) only done two albums ensures that there won't be much of an intro here, as the reviews of both can pretty much sum up my feelings toward their brief career as a whole.
One other thing of note, though: These guys apparently come from an assortment of psychedelic-pop bands that can be grouped under "the Elephant 6 collective", which is basically a group of friends who are all in different bands within it, a concept I find kinda intriguing. Can't say I've heard anyone else from this assortment of bands (who also include such acts as the Olivia Tremor Control and Apples In Stereo), though.
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Song Against Sex, Where You'll Find Me Now, You've Passed. LOW POINTS: the last half of Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye.
I'm well aware that many folks who are actually aware of Neutral Milk Hotel's existence place In The Aeroplane Over The Sea well above this one in quality, but as much as I agree with that viewpoint, that's not to say this debut isn't at all worth looking into. If nothing else, it does help in establishing the trademarks of their sound that I mentioned in the intro, only sounding somewhat more monotonous than what came afterwards. See, that's the main problem with this album - a lot of these songs are given sort of an in-your-face fuzzy indie rock tone to them, whether they be upbeat pop songs, experimentations with noise, instrumental interludes, dirgey atmospheric things, or even acoustic numbers, so the overall sound here can sound extremely uniform. Though at least you might know a couple songs in whether you can tolerate Jeff Mangum's entirely unsubtle, but strangely hypnotizing, way of stretching his singing abilities. If you can't, by all means turn it off (this probably applies to Aeroplane even more, though), and if you can, prepare yourself for the ride ahead.
As a result of these shortcomings, it can be a bit difficult for me to discuss the actual songs, especially since that way of singing renders some of these melodies not only unconventional, but also a little unmemorable. Fortunately, the actual material (apart from maybe some excessive and ugly experimentation with feedback and other noises which I'll get to later) is consistently enjoyable, if not exactly shattering. The highlights? The opening fuzz pop rocker "Song Against Sex" has such great drive to it, not to mention a catchy bouncy melody, highly interesting lyrics, and effective trumpet interplay to go along with a kickass guitar tone. What better song could introduce their career? Its' followup "You've Passed", meanwhile, is a fine midtempo song with an even cooler display of vocal emoting and a nice riff there, while the ballads "Where You'll Find Me Now" and its' shorter prelude companion "A Baby For Pree" have nice yearning qualities which very much foreshadow similar ventures into that territory on the next album, which means I pretty much dig them.
As for the remainder of the material, there's another neat distorted folk rocker with trumpet solo in "Gardenhead", and several other dirgey and 'stripped down' ballads. In particular, the airy, haunting "April 8th" has a very effective atmosphere of uncertainty (especially since it immediately precedes the most controversial track here), while "Three Peaches" and "Naomi", though somewhat unmemorable, are quite pleasant while they're on, especially the latter's interesting violin/acoustic dirgey style. Ironically, though, the most emotionally striking song on the album actually comes in the form of "Avery Island / April 1st", a gorgeously solemn trumpet instrumental. It's probably too short to be a highlight, but it provides a great breather from a lot of the harsher tones elsewhere.
Which are probably a bit too apparent in the more aggressively experimental stuff. Not that these tracks are awful or anything, but such moments as the ending to the otherwise nice "Someone Is Waiting" and pretty much the entirety of the feedback and keyboard noise instrumental "Marching Theme" detract from the experience just a little. Oh, and there's also that aforementioned 'controversial track', a really long abrasive 14 minute 'ambient' piece called "Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye", whose noises sound like they were created with Indonesian instruments, and while the effect is creepy as hell and actually really interesting to listen to for half of it or so, it totally gets tiresome after awhile, especially in the endlessly long way it fades out. But don't worry! Such flaws like this would be pretty much gone with the next album, even if they don't prevent this particular effort from being good in its' own right, since the sound is already pretty cool.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Two-Headed Boy, Oh Comely. LOW POINTS: None.
I'm really at a loss to pin down how this album makes the impact it does. Maybe that's also part of the reason I'm not quite in love with Aeroplane as some of those people who rabidly worship everything surrounding it, but that could also be part of its' appeal too, you know. This is basically another concept album, with the lyrics being centered around the life of Anne Frank, a very, very interesting subject to build a conceptual effort around if you ask me. Although it's definitely understandable while listening to this that Anne's the intended subject here, that still doesn't change the fact that the lyrics are totally off the wall, with all sorts of messed up imagery and flow. I guess in theory this album could be an incredibly easy target for people who slam pretentious albums at every turn, especially since every single line here is delivered with such a force that the vocal overemoting could be considered obnoxious. And some people really don't feel at ease with the album at all, I know this for a fact.
The overall effect is strangely hypnotizing on me, though. It also doesn't hurt that the songs themselves attempt to strike a careful balance between following whatever concept and lyrical feeling there might be, and creating gorgeous music and melodies as a background. As weird as the melodies might often try to be, they have a natural and beautiful flow to them that contributes to helping the listener lose themselves in the lyrical delivery while they're on (even though it's hard to remember a few of them afterwards). Plus, while a lot of openly artsy albums would take their instrumental jamming as an excuse to make the songs seem more important than they are, this simply isn't the case here - the trumpet and marching drum-driven "The Fool" and the keyboard-laced untitled song are concise instrumentals that have well-defined and beautiful melodies of their own that contribute to the flow of the album, even if the latter does have an Avery Island noisemaking tone to it in places. But trust me, that album's style is done even better here, as the convincing lyrical narrative and musical drive of "Holland, 1945" and the short interlude "Communist Daughter" can attest. And that's just scratching the surface.
And a hard surface it is to scratch. For one, I'm not exactly sure what the opening "The King Of Carrot Flowers" is supposed to symbolize, but does it really matter? It's a very good acoustic tune, with some utterly captivating lines thrown in there ('and Dad would dream of all the different ways to die / and each one a little more than he could dare to tryyyYYYYYYYYY' particularly gets to me - actually, there are other cool lyrical passages on that fantastic level, too many for me to even go over). And the following "Parts 2 & 3" are a heartfelt acoustic ballad (with a great 'I love you Jesus Christ...' declaration opening up) and an excitingly catchy indie rocker respectively, setting the stage for more delights in both veins. And some of these songs really put some fantastic imagery in your head even without lyrics - it almost feels like I'm flying when the fast uplifting instrumental and vocal melodies of "Ghost" are on, especially in how it gradually builds up to the 'and now she knows she'll never be afraaaaaaiiid' climax. More gorgeous trumpet work, acoustic guitars and emotional vocals abound.
My favorite song here is tough to decide, but it's probably either the majestic title track or "Two-Headed Boy", both of which are side by side in the first half of the album but are equally special in their own right. The former song is a very simple folk ballad musically, especially in the chord progression, but it's also got the most memorably relaxing, and also compelling, melody on here. The lyrics and vocals are at a high, and the embellishments used in the background are a great enhancement of this atmosphere. The latter might be the most aggressively quirky, and also stripped down, song, with simply a spare guitar/vocal arrangement, but the melody and lyrics are just odd, plus Mangum's vocals really go all out, especially at the chorus (his belting of lines like 'I AM LISTENING TO HEEEAR WHEEEERE YOU ARE' at full volume can scare the shit out of you if you're not careful).
Coming in close behind those two is the 8 minute epic "Oh, Comely", also a completely guitar/vocal song until about 6-1/2 minutes in when there's some tempo shifts and the familiar trumpet enters into the picture. For that entire length, on pretty much the same melody, the listener's entire world is drawn to the vocals, their delivery and what interesting images come through (even if it's such eye-opening stuff as 'your father made fetuses with flesh-licking ladies while you and your mother were sleeping the trailer park...'). Not overlong in the least, it isn't. But... arrghhh.... I still feel like there's something I'm missing about this album, as much of a experience as it is. It's very emotional and original-sounding and all, but I just don't get as much of a soul-crushing feeling out of it as some do, and I wouldn't really give anything here the 'oh my God it's one of the greatest songs ever' tag. Plus, the closing "Two Headed Boy, Pt. 2", for all its' five minutes, pretty much totally escapes me apart from the portions where the original is reprised. So I guess until this album really, really rips me apart someday, if ever, I can probably call this one a strong 8.5, with chances of improving.
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