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I know this album cover is imprinted into the corneas of many already. but Iâm listening to this ~8 yrs after I first found it, which sort of marked the start of my own self-discovery w music (along with, who else, but velvet underground). and since they are both so huge, Iâve had a hard time listening to them as earnestly in years since. of course relationships with music change, but I think I became embarrassed by the earnestness of this album & its internet overexposure. but it is sincere and beautiful (+ a little freaky and smutty) and it is very special to come back to every now and then. it turns on a certain part of my soul I canât usually access when I come to it at the right moment. full of love and oneness w humanity, time transcendent
âlet us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can seeâ
3d ago
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all praise goes to In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, but Neutral Milk Hotelâs debut is maybe better. It sounds similar, but more abrasive and variedâ reminding me at points of Tall Dwarfs, Avey Tare, LVL UP, and Silver Apples.
âSong Against Sexâ, âGardenhead/Leave Me Aloneâ, âNaomiâ, âWhere Youâll Find Me Nowâ are maybe my favorites.
Makes me feel nostalgic for something I canât remember, like looking at a strangerâs sun bleached film through a zoetrope.
Dec 11, 2024
Concept albums sometimes get a bad rap as the musical equivalent of "eating your spinach:" lengthy, dense, subject to being over-analyzed, with allegorical significance assigned to every word. Listening to one can sound a lot like "work" which often isn't consistent with "just enjoying the music."
But despite its consistent motif, it would be a mistake to treat Neutral Milk Hotelâs second studio album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea like a scavenger hunt. Jeff Mangum, the frontman and creative force behind the band, recognized the album as directly influenced by reading The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. But for all the linear references to our young departed heroine, there's a lot of Mangumâs own autobiography, philosophy and observation in there. Plus some damn good tunes.
The Diary of a Young Girl is a coming of age story that is cut short, before revelation and maturation. On the album, Mangum grieves the loss of Frank, as well as a collective loss of innocence. The very first words sung on the album, âwhen you were young,â set the tone for all that follows, which is a combination of freakshow ephemera, slapstick violence, and the technicolor dreamcoat that would come to signify "psych-folk" as it was practiced at that point (late 1990s).
I saw Mangum and company play this album in its entirety in Seattle many years later and I'll be damned if its capacity to both amaze and confound wasn't still fully intact. I can't encourage you enough to listen to this full album and give in to its music box charms and bizarro-world imagery and storytelling.
Jul 25, 2024
a year ago, a girl i was going out with recommended this album to me, after i heard the song "Insecure" while we made out in her car. a year later, we don't really talk anymore, but i finally listened to this album all the way through... and i loved it so much that i felt compelled to text her and thank her profusely for the recommendation. i kept my text to her short and sweet, but i have a lot to say about this special album.
i'm jewish, and though i'm not a religious person, i've been thinking a lot about religion lately and what it means to me. growing up, i went to synagogue with my family for the high holidays, and i didn't particularly connect with any of the scripture in this sterile environment. throughout college, i was involved in an alternative jewish space that welcomed everyone as they were and centered social justice, and we hosted events where we got to share food, space, songs, hopes for the future, etc.
now that i'm not in college, and not living with my family, i'm figuring out what religion means to me at an individual level and how it affects the way i interact with the world around me. it's been years since i've been to a synagogue, but i try to go to concerts as much as i can, because music means the world to me and experiencing it in a live setting, in community, is sacred... and by sacred, i mean that it commands your full attention, it swallows you whole, forces you to let go.
i haven't experienced this album in a live setting, and because northern picture library have since disbanded, i likely never will. but the other day, after smoking some weed, lighting some candles, laying on the floor in almost complete darkness, and playing this album on my noise-cancelling headphones, i saw god in my room.
every sound on every song envelops you completely. the vocals, the harmonies, the organ, the field recordings, the synths, the guitars, the lyrics... everything is perfection in its purest form. the mix makes it sound so close to you, yet so far away. the overexposed album cover feels incredibly fitting, with every song making up a sliver of a bright and beautifully blinding heaven. and it doesn't surprise me at all that the length of this album is an angel number (1 hr 11 mins).
i can't remember the last time i was this moved by an album. it solidified my desire to, one day, go to divinity school and do extensive research on the many religious qualities of music; i still have loans to pay, life to live, and lots of music to listen to, but i'm excited to go down this rabbit hole one day. it's kind of funny that i've come to this conclusion honestly, considering that the girl who recommended this to me is majoring in religion, and i never thought i would want to study religion at an academic level. i guess this is just a testament to how everyone you meet, and especially everyone you care about (or have cared about), are woven into the fabric of your life, no matter how long they're a part of it. what goes around comes back around... life is a spiral!
i hope you take the time to listen to this album and let it move you. i can't promise you'll see god (we're still getting to know each other), but i guarantee it'll restore your faith... if not in god, then in yourself <3
Oct 1, 2024
Top Recs from @beepboopbap
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a clean palette to begin the day, largely unburdened by yesterdayâs choices đš
5d ago
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those flashes of little warmth with some little dreaming, strange half consciousness interspersed between. sort of happens when I am not sleeping well but when it happens just right itâs a lil gift in an altered state. time passes so different n it feels like u unlocked a secret extra hour that the 40 hr work week said u couldnât have
Mar 5, 2025
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sometimes we need each other and are stronger for it
2d ago