Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” stood out in the music world, suddenly obsessed with standardizing genres and making all artists adhere to a formula. Such eccentricities seemed to guarantee that these freak-folk ramblings would only remain an interest for a dedicated few. Instead, being a tall poppy paid off, and Neutral Milk Hotel’s album has been turned by the internet into a meme and into one of the most treasured albums in the world.
But is it all down to smartass hipsters being able to whip up a funny meme? Is “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” overrated, or, indeed, an indie-rock masterpiece? Like most critics, I will review this album a few decades after the release and try to answer this very question.
Neutral Milk Hotel Road to Making “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
Neutral Milk Hotel was never supposed to become a massively successful band or create imitators outside of their small scene. The band’s eventual success wasn’t only surprising for the band’s frequent collaborators, but for the band members themselves.
Jeff Magnum, a Louisiana folk musician with a taste for the weird and confrontational was the driving force of the band. He made lo-fi home recordings of his songs and, eventually, become part of a music collective known as Elephant 6. The collective and record label that sprung for it are nearly as famous in the musical underground as “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.”
One of the co-founders of Elephant 6 was musician Robert Schneider, also later involved with the band The Olivia Tremor Control. He was Magnum’s closest collaborator during those early days, and producer of Neutral Milk Hotel’s debut album “On Avery Island.”
You can hear the traces of Neutral Milk Hotels’ more famous compositions on the debut, albeit not exactly at the same standard. Meanwhile, it was Schneider who argued for a warm Beatlesque production, but Magnum opted for a firmly lo-fi affair instead.
Released in 1996, the album was nicely reviewed by the specialized music press and, predictably, ignored by the music-buying public. Nothing shocking up to this point.
By late 1997, equipped with a bunch of noise, new freak-folk songs and a bit of money left over after a long tour of the U.S., Neutral Milk Hotel, now a quartet, set about recording a follow to “On Avery Island.”
Commercial expectations were low, but enthusiasm was high. The group had just moved to Athens, Georgia, the home of R.E.M. and the B-52s in the 80s, and, in the 90s, a welcoming place for indie and alternative rock.
Schneider, once again, produced the band and had no idea he was making a future, internet approved, classic.
Review of “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
It’s not just the songs on “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” that are better than the debut. It’s also the sound. You can tell that Robert Schneider was a producer who loved the band’s sound and Magnum’s vision.
This time, he nearly gets his way in creating a Beatlesque-sounding record. Still, he also allows Magnum’s ideas to help create a large, chaotic, unpredictable, yet beautiful sound.
People have called this a psychedelic folk record, lo-fi, or freak-folk. Indeed, noise is the band’s friend. Acoustic guitars are played through electric guitar amps. Distortion pedals are used. Songs move from a snail-pace to a punk-rock tempo. The lyrics are either mysterious, or shocking. And, Beatlesque horns are included, creating a sound that Arcade Fire would gladly make their own a few years later.
The contributions of Jeremy Barnes, Scott Spillane, and Julian Koster need to be noted. However, it is true that, essentially, these are acoustic, folk-based songs, played and orchestrated in an unconventional way.
“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is organized chaos. But it’s not designed to be this. The songs like, indeed, Magnum’s personality are rather bizarre. That is the main ingredient for the magic of the record.
Album Review
It sounds otherworldly, swinging from ethereally beautiful to maddeningly uninviting. It is a fever dream of an album, an excursion into another world, and this is part of the enduring appeal of the album with the modern public.
Album opener, “King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1” has Magnum reminiscing about childhood. But the prettily sung words over the acoustic guitar backing quickly turn into confessions of a violent, unhinged environment.
“King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3” contains the first highly memeable moment, with Magnum theatrically singing about his (or a character’s) love of Jesus Christ. Neutral Milk Hotel is breaking with convention and doing it in a humorous way.
Excellent sequencing leads to the title track, the most famous song on the album and, indeed, an incredibly beautiful and bizarre piece of music. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is a love song that seems to be sung by a crazed man. The vocals slid off the rails a few times as the Beatlesque trumpets raise the tune-up to heaven and beyond.
For the rest of the album, Magnum takes turns delivering beautifully salty tunes and mixing them with strange confessions meant to make you uncomfortable.
The excellently sung “Two-Headed Boy” is another song about misunderstood creatures made to find comfort by dreaming of the world instead of living in it. It’s an idea that Magnum returns to for the album’s ending.
“Oh Comely” is a freakish yet pretty song about sex. “Communist Daughter” is short, mentions semen-stained mountain tops, and is another enduring internet meme.
And on the song’s best album, “Holland, 1945,” Neutral Milk Hotel go full folk-punk, in a song that may well be about Anne Frank, Magum and the band deliver an incredibly violently giddy performance.
“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is a really good album. Yes, for once, the hype is fair. Modern music critics, YouTube creators, and blog writers often call it “one of the best albums ever made.” While this can be challenged, it is clearly a special record.
Legacy of Neutral Milk Hotel and “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”
It was such a special album, in fact, that Jeff Magnum was especially interested in following it up. The record didn’t sell colossally, but critics were even more ebullient in their praises. One Pitchfork review called it a lo-fi version of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
Word of mouth grew and so did the number of supporters. Neutral Milk Hotel, initially, tried to take advantage of this, once again, touring the United States. The group earned a reputation for being strange, and, occasionally engainging in dangerous behavior.
After the tour, Magum stopped. But the album’s rise didn’t. Just as the likes of MySpace and message boards were making the internet the new method for music promotion, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” became one of the most praised albums in online circles.
By the late 2000s, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” was an internet phenomenon. Copycat bands, or respectful followers, like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, folk-punks like Andrew Jackson Jihad, or pop-punks like Fleet Foxes had appeared and been successful.
The internet called out for Jeff Magnum to return and profit from the situation. Initially, Magnum hesitated. Without much fuss or any interviews explaining his absence, he reunited Neutral Milk Hotel in 2008. They toured until 2015, didn’t release any new music, and broke up again. The world loves mystery.
As for “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” it’s become the “Citizen Kane” of online underground music. It’s sold hundreds of thousands of records. It is an inside joke between music fans. And, everyone with an acoustic guitar either rips it off, or say that they’d like to. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” is bizarre modern-day classic, and one of the most important indie albums ever made.
