just found this review of Neutral Milk Hotel....
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. (Domino)
WHY?
That is the big question, encompassing the reasons for this review and questioning the omission of this record from your collection. Simply put, it's one of the finest albums ever. I hadn't seen the need for a reissue as it is a record that is played, more often than not on repeat, by me on such a regular basis that it's as essential as oxygen. Stepping back, the reasoning makes sense, especially if, like me, you have had people tell you how wonderful the Arcade Fire are and how they've never heard anything like them before. That is the point when i let loose with my Neutral Milk Hotel rant until their eyes glaze over and then head to a record shop. Anyway, enough of that, let's clear this up for you newcomers. The acoustic strum of 'King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1' tumbles in like the tower through the trees that Jeff Mangum sings and constructs as he goes. Already the ghosts are circling between the lines and the heady aroma of lost love fills the air, drawing you in until the maelstrom swirl if Part 2 drags you under. Now you are caught. The Aeroplane of the title flies overhead, scattering ashes of lovers as the spirit intones softly, sounding much like a saw. the 'Two-Headed Boy' makes an appearance for the first time, living in his surreal world, but yearning for company and "catching signals that sound in the dark" in a land of radios and "silver speakers that sparkle all day". The song stumbles, trips and rights itself, turning into 'The Fool' just as 'Holland 1945' smashes through the walls, laden with distortion and meaning to sound like that. It hammers along, driven by a bowed bass and frenetic drumming that sounds like a marching band cascading down a long flight of stairs. It ends as swiftly as it started, cut off mid note it seems, but allowing the ghost to escape and wander through 'Communist Daughter' before standing proud after the sprawlingly aching 'Oh Comely', a song that staggers, bewildered and haunted, wracked by the voices of too many people, living and dead and trying to make sense of it all. The bluster of 'Ghost' blows all that away in a melody of trumpets that glide through and finally meet up for the rousing instrumental that follows. Oh joy, now you can bounce around, as the funfair rolls into town, swooping and swirling in a clatter of cymbals. It boils away, twirling into almost nothing, just the echoes of its existence remain as the 'Two-Headed Boy' returns for Part 2 through the mist, like a lost minstrel. He regales you with his woe, longing for a child, for love, for so much. His brother's head is still filled with flames and the ghost still haunts as 'in my dreams you’re alive and we're crying'. The words tumble and gallop from Mangum's mouth, at odds with the strum, but sounding totally in place. The end is brutal. The cold biting "Don't hate her when she gets up to leave" is all the advice he can offer before laying down his guitar and wrestling the plug from it. Like the ghost that wanders the record, this album will return to you and stay in your head and heart. There will be times when it's all you can play and others when you can't bear the thought of it, so crushing is its Frankness, but you will never let go of it - ever. If you haven't got this record then i come back to my initial question.
L