Neutral Milk Hotel
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
»
|
NATN Recommended
Neutral Milk Hotel
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Merge, 1998
RiYL: Syd Barrett, R.E.M., Olivia Tremor Control, Bob Dylan, The Pixies, Love, The Velvet Underground |
The experience of listening to Aeroplane cannot be equaled. It's a piece of art that surrounds you, envelops you, explodes into your heart and explores your deepest emotions.
This is the coming out of a completely new breed of singer-songwriter: Mangum's voice comes straight from his soul. He seems less intent on carefully constructing melodic and rhythmic frameworks than being a conduit for the intangible beauty he hears in his mind. Part of what makes the album so breathtaking is that it doesn't subscribe to any particular sound or trend.
The album's flow is sublime, as marching horn sections buffer acoustic stream-of-consciousness epics and life-affirming rockers. Multi-instrumentalist Scott Spillane provides great relief from the Aeroplane's intensity with two self-penned brass interludes. Drummer Jeremy Barnes and multi-instrumentalist (including the 'singing saw') Julian Koster also turn in stellar performances. Mangum exhibits strong focus as he conducts this ragged but tight band through a river of repeating motifs and intense imagery, guided by the strong melodic current that flows throughout.
Mangum's voice strains to the limits of expression, and his vocal segues are exquisite. After astounding the listener with exhaustive melodies, he wrings the last drop of vocal energy out of his larynx, only to be rescued and transported to the next movement by another melodic element, be it a rousing chorus, demonstrating flugelhorns or his own overlapping vocals.
The title track is a happy sea chantey, part Beatles lullaby and part Hemingway sunset, that hooks anyone who has made it through all three parts of the opening "King Of Carrot Flowers" suite. You start to realize that all the songs are in the same key, and repeating motifs give structure and cohesiveness to the record in the form of song titles, melodic phrases and lyric subject matter.
Aeroplane features a welcome dearth of rhyming couplets. Especially on "Two-Headed Boy" and "Oh Comely," Mangum discards rhyme schemes altogether for an equally catchy combination of phrasing and word placement. His disjointed but melodic vocal progressions stick in your head chiefly because of their smart meter and alien-perfect sense.
Cryptic at first, the lyrics grab listeners strongly after the fourth or fifth spin and seem to gain more depth of meaning every time. Mangum's compelling voice makes his seeming nonsense jump out from its context until the contour completes itself. He breaks out uncommonly unforgettable phrases like "Your father made fetuses with flesh-licking ladies" and "All of them milking with green fleshy flowers while powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines," more reminiscent of Dylan Thomas than contemporary pop lyrics. But whatever he's saying, it comes across as deeply heartfelt. This is far from rock commercialism -- it is uncompromising art.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea draws partly from the well of human emotions experienced during WWII. The evocative art on the insert features bomber planes made out of phonographs, a strange symbol linking music with war. Anne Frank's spectre is conjured by Mangum's voice as it echoes the nervousness, sadness, and hopelessness of a life struggle against a powerful force. He puts such honesty into every note that he sounds like Anne's guardian angel, watching the Holocaust from the sky and reappearing 50 years later to finally reveal the lessons learned from times of human despair.
"Oh Comely," the second of the acoustic epics, travels a haunting, perilous course through a number of movements. The last verse describes the grim realities of the holocaust: "I know they buried her body with others / her sister and mother and five hundred families" and wonders about its effect on the state of human existence: "Will she remember me 50 years later? / I wish I could save her in some sort of time machine." At the song's close, you can hear the immediate reaction of someone in the studio in awe of Mangum's performance: a voice exclaims "Holy Shit!".
The last track, "Two Headed Boy Pt. II," is the perfect closer. With his best vocal melody yet, Mangum evokes the exausted but content sound of one who has been through a great journey. He has traveled to the edges of energy and thought and returned home wiser, but burdened with the truth. "Daddy please hear this song that I sing," his voice urges, and later concludes that "God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life."
It's as if the artist's soul is burdened by these songs and in singing them, he has unleashed some arcane understanding to all mankind. Through the album's emotional journey, we realize that life is full of suffering and sorrow. To make the best of our time on Earth, we must relish the precious moments of beauty in between. As Mangum sings in the title track:
"One day we will die, and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea / but for now, we are young -- let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see."
TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.