Welcome back to Album Anatomy! Each week, I choose a critically acclaimed album, explain its history and break it down track-by-track. If I do my job, you’ll know why I love the album and why you should check it out! New entries in this nine-part series will post every Saturday.
Here we are, the penultimate entry in this run of Album Anatomy. Truth be told, I started the column because of this week’s album. It’s an indie rock classic from the ‘90s and for the longest time, I didn’t “get” it. I didn’t know why it was a classic. I searched the internet looking for an answer and none of the reviews told me why this album is more than just great. Instead, I had to find out for myself. And so without further ado, here’s my best shot at the article I had been looking for in the first place.
The album: “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
When was it released? February 10, 1998
The elevator pitch: “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is a lo-fi indie rock album that is bursting with imagination, energy and melancholy. Inspired by the diaries of Anne Frank, the album has a constant undertone of sadness, and the album’s raw emotion is complemented by the singer’s impassioned vocals and the various instrumental and genre influences.
What’s lo-fi? “ITAOTS” introduced me to this term. Lo-fi refers to music that is intentionally recorded at a lower sound quality than other music. This is often done to make the music sound more raw or genuine. (Car Seat Headrest is one of my favorite lo-fi bands in the music industry today.)
Wait, who’s Neutral Milk Hotel? Neutral Milk Hotel is a lo-fi folk-rock band formed by lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Jeff Mangum in Ruston, Louisiana.
What else should I know? “ITAOTS” is Neutral Milk Hotel’s second and last album. The album wasn’t a runaway sales success, and the band broke up after Mangum suffered a panic attack, according to Slate. However, the album became a bestseller on vinyl in the 21st century. It was the sixth best-selling vinyl record in 2008, according to Rolling Stone. The band reunited for an “ITAOTS” tour in 2013.
What’s great about the album? 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of “ITAOTS,” and the album is just as special today as it was in 1998. Sonically, the album still has a distinct sound inspired by noise rock that sets it apart from other folk-rock albums. Mangum’s guitar chords are simple but they are full of energy and help drive the songs. The album boasts incredible lo-fi horns and bagpipes, which are crucial to setting “ITAOTS” apart from other music. Mangum’s vocals are often strained, but they are always passionate and dripping with emotion. According to Slate, Mangum cried for days after reading Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl,” and this sadness translates into both his vocals and songwriting. The lyrics are rich in detail and create a surreal world that is unlike our own, where two-headed boys exist and “semen stains the mountain tops.” The context of “ITAOTS” may be very sad and inspired by death, but Mangum’s energy and imagination make “ITAOTS” seem very alive, and this juxtaposition is what makes the album so good.
What isn’t great about the album? Mangum’s vocals can sound unpleasant when you first listen to “ITAOTS.” His voice is often strained on the album, which helps evoke even more emotion, but the sometimes shrill sound can turn some listeners away. In the same way, some listeners may not like the noise rock influences on “ITAOTS,” which are loud and often disrupt otherwise pleasant moments.
How was “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” received? As noted earlier, “ITAOTS” was not a commercial success upon release, and it did not receive much attention from critics. But after the album gained an underground following, raving reviews started pouring in. It received perfect scores from AllMusic and Pitchfork, the latter of which likened it to a ‘90s lo-fi version of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” In 2003, the magazine Magnet named “ITAOTS” the best album of the ‘90s, and in 2014, Spin called the album a “classic.” Not all initial reviews for the album were positive though. Like last week’s “Pinkerton,” the album received a mixed review from Rolling Stone, which described Mangum’s vocals as “straining the limits of an affectless voice.” Like “Pinkerton” as well, Rolling Stone righted their wrongs and gave the album four and a half stars in 2004.
The track-by-track breakdown:
Track 1: “The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1”
This album is a constant juxtaposition. Pleasant guitar chords are interrupted by shrieking lo-fi noise. Death gets in the way of love. In the album’s first song, young romance is juxtaposed with a marriage of disdain. Mangum sings of a married couple who clearly hate each other. The wife is an alcoholic who drives forks into her husband’s shoulder. The husband has anger issues and just wants to die. Meanwhile, the protagonist and his love interest dream of a world of carrot flowers and holy rattlesnakes. Later, they have sex and the protagonist knows he is in love with this other person. But he acknowledges his fear of love (“that secret place where no one dares to go”). The song introduces the themes of love, death and sex, which all appear throughout the album. The song’s sound is great and shows how Mangum uses other instruments alongside his guitar to create a rich sound.
Track 2: “The King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 & 3”
“Pt. 1” flows seamlessly into the slower “Pt. 2,” which has Mangum proclaiming a love for Jesus Christ. In an explanation included in the album’s booklet, Mangum said this section is about hope and how the world will always have some eternal white light, no matter how bad things get. The song gradually speeds up into “Pt. 3” where Mangum continues the theme of hope and says he will continue to shout until his words are heard. Sonically, the song is very dense. Notice how Mangum’s vocals in “Pt. 3” sound like they are drowning in a sea of noise. Perhaps this is because he is about to lose his hope.
BEST TRACK→ Track 3: “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
The title track of “ITAOTS” might be its most simple track, but that’s why I love it. The fictional characters and the noise that make up most of the album are absent in this track, allowing Mangum to sing an emotional ballad about life and death without many distractions. Mangum sings about reading Anne Frank’s diary for the first time. He says she was beautiful, but her diary taught him that “in a blink of an eye,” everything can be gone from him. He then references the album’s title, saying “One day, we will die, and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea.” This line is about leaving something behind when you die. In the case of Frank, she left her diary. With his new understanding of death, Mangum sings about the strangeness of life (“how strange it is to be anything at all” is one of my favorite lines from the album) and says he will laugh with Frank “on a cloud” after his death. The darkest part of the album, in which Mangum questions who history will remember, is followed by shrill lo-fi noise, which contrasts the sweet guitar chords and horns in the rest of the song.
Track 4: “Two-Headed Boy”
“Two-Headed Boy” is one of the most lyrically dense songs on “ITAOTS.” Mangum sings of a two-headed boy trapped in a glass jar who loves to dance and listen to music. The boy falls in love with Anne Frank, who is trapped in her own way. The boy struggles as he watches his love suffer and die, and when he is released, he is alone in the snow to die. Dark stuff, right? This dark tale is contrasted with Mangum’s fast guitar strums, but you can hear the pain in his voice when he sings “Now your eyes ain’t moving/Now they just lay there in their climb,” which is about Frank.
Track 5: “The Fool”
“Two-Headed Boy” flows into the processional brass march of “The Fool.” Could this be a funeral march for Frank and the two-headed boy? Even without lyrics, the song is still very emotional, with dirty trumpets playing over a slow drum.
Track 6: “Holland, 1945”
The album’s tempo picks up with “Holland, 1945,” but its themes do not. “Holland, 1945” is another song about the legacy of Anne Frank. Mangum mourns that she died so young and that she lived in a world that chose death over life (“It’s so sad to see the world agree that they’d rather see their faces fill with flies”). Similar to the themes of the title track, Mangum says we must appreciate the life we have because the lives of people like Frank were taken from them (“But now we must pick up every piece of the life we used to love just to keep ourselves at least enough to carry on”). Musically, I love the lively brass instruments and crashing drums at the end.
Track 7: “Communist Daughter”
The horns of “Holland” trail into “Communist Daughter,” one of the most interesting tracks on “ITAOTS.” Mangum sings about the importance of sexual positivity. The song’s main character is a communist daughter, which is an allegory for someone who feels like they need to share their body in order to be accepted (“Wanting something warm and moving, bends towards herself the soothing, proves that she must still exist”). It’s a short but rich song, and it’s only made sweeter by the delicate trumpet solo at the end.
Track 8: “Oh Comely”
“Oh Comely,” the longest song on “ITAOTS,” is one of the hardest songs to decipher. Mangum sings about a girl whose father is an adulterer. The father hates himself for it, calling himself his only enemy, and asks his daughter to forget the good things about him (“Pull out all your miracles aimed for me”). Mangum returns to the subject of Frank at the end, saying “I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine.” He then tells the listener to know their enemies, saying they already know them. This is a reference to earlier in the song when the father admits he is his own enemy. Mangum is telling the listener their worst enemy is themselves and they should acknowledge their weaknesses. Thematically, “Oh Comely” fits into the larger narrative of legacy and thinking about what we will leave behind when we die.
WORST TRACK→ Track 9: “Ghost”
“Ghost” is another song about the legacy of Anne Frank. It’s one of the most optimistic songs on the album, as Mangum sings Frank “will live forever” in the minds of people who have read her diary. Ultimately, the song is just a reiteration of themes from earlier tracks, but it’s still a good song. Plus, I like the song’s ending, which sounds like a very exciting bagpipe jam session.
Track 10: “Untitled”
The jam session at the end of “Ghost” transitions into the album’s second instrumental track, “Untitled.” The song features a true rock-n-roll bagpipe solo, which is given backup from crashing drums and some kind of hooting instrument. The song devolves into whirring noise, which sets up the album’s final song.
Track 11: “Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2”
The album’s final song is one last ode to Anne Frank and a return to some of the characters and themes of previous songs. Mangum reads aloud Frank’s diary, likening it to her mouth moving in his, which is similar to the lyrics of the title track. He realizes his love for her and relates his newfound understanding of death to other experiences. He tells a father to appreciate his children and mourns the death of a friend who shot himself in the head. The hope of “Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 & 3” returns in the final bridge, in which Mangum sings “When we break, we’ll wait for our miracle. God is a place where some holy spectacle lies… God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life.” This line, one of my favorites from the album, is so hopeful yet so sad. The album then ends with the two-headed boy, who loves Frank, but cannot do anything when she dies. Mangum tells the boy not to hate her for it. I get chills every time I listen to that ending.
Last chance, Sam. Why should I listen? “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is unique. It’s unlike anything you have or ever will listen to, and I mean that in the best way possible. The album is loud and full of noise, boasting triumphant guitar strums, a psychedelic brass section, a bagpipe solo and lo-fi sound jitters. Mangum’s vocals are not perfect, but they help give the album more character when it already has so much. The album has a profound sadness to it, but it never branches into being melodramatic or manipulative. Instead, Mangum creates a rich world that asks what we can learn from Anne Frank. It’s an album that acknowledges the gift of life and mourns death, and its unflinching desire for a better world breathes so much energy into the record. “ITAOTS” is a work of art, and it’s one that should not be missed.
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