Neutral Milk Is My Aeroplane

I used think Neutral Milk Hotel was a band that was Carnival music with a twist of an acid trip. They were filled with psychedelic roots and sonic sounds that not many people heard of. No other band could pull this off. I love to recommend an album that totally will throw anyone off of what music "should" be. I remember when I worked at the library one of my purchases was In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. The person who was doing the cataloging and I worked one Saturday and she brought up CD's that were going to be put in the system and then eventually put out for the public to take out and listen. It happened that all the CD's she brought up were the ones I chose for the library collection. She wanted to write what genre of music each CD was and any other notes I could put on the record so people could find it. This gave me great joy.

There was about 20 CD's that needed this explanation. We would alternate working on the desk while she was working on other tasks. Each CD had an identity to me and the music was more of an identity. Of course she never heard of the music I had bought so she assumed it was only called "Matt's Music." I tried to give her some association with some of the albums because her daughters were not much older then I. She again had no clue. It was funny telling her stories of these artist or albums and how she should catalog these.



When it came to Neutral Milk Hotel it was time for my quirky oddness to show through. She looked at me and said what is this odd ball CD. I regaled her and told her it's Neo-Psychedelia with a twinge of carnival music and very eccentric. I also told her it was the #4 album of the 1990's. I also told her I listened to it back in 1998 and thought it was very good, but their was something missing or my maturity had not caught up to it yet. She left it aside and told me that she would take it home and judge for herself. Oh! Boy! I got myself into a pickle with this one. She took it home and called me after the album was finished to tell me that I was crazy and this album would never get checked out of the library. I made a bet that it will be checked out 50 times in six month span. I won, and furthermore it got checked out 63 times in that six month span.

In that time that I was helping her catalog the CD's I told her I got re introduced to that album when I was at college. There were people who actually adored this type of music. It was a group of musicians who made this kind of indie rock and psychedelic stuff that only bands of this magnitude could make. It was somewhat of a cult project. This project even had a following like no other. Even more the best part of this was there was no one band involved in this idea. Some of these bands still make albums and perform live so the concept is still there. The music is addicting, but most of all it has some kind of hook to grab you and not let go.



The uniqueness of this album every song builds on the previous song. Each song is the part of the puzzle that you have to figure out in the forty minutes this album lasts. Every part of this album is a classic. To make it more of a classic, this was the last album Jeff Magnum and Neutral Milk Hotel would make. It's fun to see what kind of reaction when you tell your friends about an album that has a feel like it should have been put out in 1969. Every time I listen to this album it has effected me in a different way that I cannot explain. It does make my mood more positive.

If you are interested in something extremely fresh and original you should take this on for size. It was voted the fourth best album of the 1990's. It's an album that I deeply love. It is always in heavy rotation and is something that should be experienced. It may have a feel of the sixties, but the sound and the music is very original.