Neutral Milk Hotel: "In the aeroplane Over the sea"

Just from the opening seconds of Neutral Milk Hotel's second album, you know it's going to be special: the acoustic guitar strum is catchy beyond belief, and Jeff Magnum's intonation lends credibility even to a line like "When you were young, you were the King of Carrot Flowers." Listening to In the Aeroplane is like stepping through Alice's looking glass; you enter a fantastic new universe that, while it doesn't always make sense logically, feels like the home you never had. Randy Silver - Amazon.com

From the opening "King of Carrot Flowers," In the Aeroplane Over the Sea shifts from acoustic folkiness to loud, fast punk rock with little or no warning. It features a noisy horn section and a dreamy singin' saw, all rolled into a package that does a credible job of blending Sgt. Pepper with early 90's lo-fi. Christian Mc Dermott - Pitchforkmedia.come

I had heard somewhere that this album still sells like like crazy. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is unbelievably 7 years old this year and yet it remains so relevant. I'm not sure if Jeff Magnum realized just what he created with this album but I have a feeling that he is quite aware. And smart too because he hasn't done anything with the Neutral Milk Hotel monicker since. Dennis Scanland - MusicEmission.com

Jeff Mangum, who goes by the name of Neutral Milk Hotel with or without musical collaborators, was one of those seventies kids touched by Brian Wilson and Lindsey Buckingham. Unfortunately, Mangum went straight for the advanced course in aura and texture, skipping basic training in form and selfediting. The lyrics on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, his second album, are fertile, heaping, onrushing; most of the music is scant and drab, with flat-footed rhythms and chord changes strictly out of the beginner's folk songbook. Elsewhere, in "The King of Carrot Flowers Parts Two and Three," the clattering drums, trombones and impasto of underwater guitar fuzz mask the absence of a decent melody.. Benn Rattliff - Rolling Stones

Listening to less inspired bands grope for the heights of rapture reached by Mangum's visionary music is a lot like watching Olympic figure skaters flounder and fall: You are sad and embarrassed on their behalf. A teacher of mine used to call efforts like these "magnificent failures," and held them in higher esteem than those failures that result from risks untaken. But NMH's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" doesn't falter. It goes for great heights -- and gets there. Listening to this album is like watching someone fly. Caterina Fake - Archive.Salon.com

Parola di Bielle
Un incontro casuale. Su Amazon.com, di deviazione in deviazione, seguendo il fiume dei consigli che la più grande società di vendita on line del mondo propone. Dai Decembrist a un disco dalla bizzarra copertina, dalla bizzarra grafica, dalla bizzarra musica. L'ascolto on line dei frammenti offerti mi ha folgorato. Quel disco doveva essere mio! Togliamo il velo: il disco è "In the aeroplane over the sea" e il gruppo ha il nome inconsueto di Neutral Milk Hotel. Gruppo poi per modo di dire, perché il nome cela il chitarrista e cantante Jeff Mangum con l'aggiunta di un pugno di strumenti e non è nemmeno un disco nuovo, perché la prima edizione data 1998. Solo che dal 1998 Mangum non ha più inciso altra musica. Questo resta quindi il suo epitaffio in musica (per ora). Un epitaffio che è uno sberleffo, sospeso tra folk e punk, tra Tim Buckley e Devandra Banhart, tra liriche dolenti e sospiri irridenti. Un grande disco del passato prossimo che suona di una assoluta e suadente contemporaneità. Da non perdere.