In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Untitled

In the Aeroplane over the Sea is the second studio album by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel, released in the United States on February 10, 1998 on Merge Records. The album was released in the United Kingdom in May 1998 on Blue Rose Records.

Jeff Mangum moved from Athens, Georgia to Denver, Colorado to prepare the bulk of the album's material with producer Robert Schneider, this time at Schneider's newly-created Pet Sounds Studio at the home of Jim McIntyre.

The album's cover was a collaboration between Mangum and R.E.M.'s staff designer, Chris Bilheimer. The general design reflects the taste of Mangum: Bryan Poole said that "[Mangum] was always into that old-timey, magic, semi-circus, turn-of-the-century, penny arcade kind of imagery." One particular piece Mangum showed to Bilheimer was an old European postcard with an image of people bathing at a resort, which was then cropped and altered for the cover. Bilheimer also designed a broadsheet-style lyrics sheet for the album, and inadvertently titled "Holland, 1945" in the process; Mangum wanted to use either "Holland" or "1945" for the song, and Bilheimer suggested he use both.

The album continues to sell well, and was the sixth-best-selling vinyl album in 2008.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
About.com
Allmusic
Robert Christgau
Pitchfork Media (1998)	(8.7/10.0)
Pitchfork Media (2005)	(10.0/10)
Planet Sound
Rolling Stone (1998)
Rolling Stone (2005)
Tiny Mix Tapes

Initial reviews of In the Aeroplane over the Sea were mixed. A review in the College Music Journal called Aeroplane a "A true lo-fi pop landmark" and cited "Holland, 1945" as a highlight. Pitchfork Media's M. Christian McDermott gave the album an 8.7 out of 10, referring to Neutral Milk Hotel as "one psych-rock band making music that's just as catchy as it is frightening" and said that the album "does a credible job of blending Sgt. Pepper with early 90's lo-fi." A review by Ben Ratliff in Rolling Stone was more negative: "Unfortunately, Mangum went straight for the advanced course in aura and texture, skipping basic training in form and selfediting. [...] He sings loudly, straining the limits of an affect less voice. [...] For those not completely sold on its folk charm, Aeroplane is thin-blooded, woolgathering stuff."

Jason Ankeny of Allmusic wrote, "lo-fi yet lush, impenetrable yet wholly accessible, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is either the work of a genius or an utter crackpot, with the truth probably falling somewhere in between." Ankeny also praised Mangum's vocals as "far more emotive" than they were on On Avery Island, but criticized the lyrics as vague in meaning, saying, "While Mangum spins his words with the rapid-fire intensity of a young Dylan, the songs are far too cryptic and abstract to fully sink in — In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is undoubtedly a major statement, but just what it's saying is anyone's guess." Robert Christgau rated the album a "Neither", and while he later wrote that the album "convinced alt diehards that maturity can be just as weird as growing up", he also called it "a funereal jape that gets my goat."

Subsequent reviews from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone were more positive; the latter gave the album four of five stars in its 2004 The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition, with reviewer Roni Sarig writing, "Mangum had put together something resembling an actual band, resulting in a far richer and more organic sound [than On Avery Island]. What's more, the songwriting had blossomed far beyond the bounds of Elephant 6 (or indie rock as a whole), with Mangum etching out timeless transcendentalist pop steeped in a century of American music (from funeral marches to driving punk)." Sarig also commended the album for its "passionate acoustic-guitar strums, irresistible melodies, and lyrics that rarely feel obtuse even when they're nonsensical." Pitchfork, in a 2005 review written by Mark Richardson, gave the album a perfect score. Richardson praised the album's lyrical directness and "kaleidoscopic" musical style. PopMatters named a reissue of the album one of the best of 2005, and wrote, "Aeroplane is a manifesto for a different way of making pop. To hear 'Two-Headed Boy' in 2005 is to realize that Mangum's art is simply superb songwriting. But most of the record adds an ingenious mixture of accordion, brass, organ, fuzzed-out guitars, tape, and other glorious miscellanea."

Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler named Aeroplane as a chief reason that his band signed to Merge. Jesse Lacey of Brand New called In the Aeroplane over the Sea "the greatest record ever written", and has covered "Holland, 1945", "Oh Comely", and "Two Headed Boy Pt. 2" in concert. In early 2009, Plan-It-X Records artist Madeline Ava covered the entire "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" album on ukulele. It is online for free download. In August 2010 The Swell Season covered "Two-Headed Boy" for The AV Club. In 2010 a group called Neutral Uke Hotel began touring playing ukulele covers of all the songs on the album.

Inspiration

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is widely considered to be written about Anne Frank due to lyrics seemingly related to her, such as lines referring to her birth and death dates . Though the group has never officially stated the album is indeed about Frank, it is a popular theory among fans, and Jeff Mangum has mentioned the impact her diary has had on his work.

Track listing

All songs written by Jeff Mangum except where noted. Horn arrangements by Robert Schneider and Scott Spillane.

1. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One" – 2:00
2. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three" (Jeremy Barnes, Julian Koster, Jeff Mangum, Scott Spillane) – 3:06
3. "In the Aeroplane over the Sea" – 3:22
4. "Two-Headed Boy" – 4:26
5. "The Fool" (Spillane) – 1:53
6. "Holland, 1945" – 3:12
7. "Communist Daughter" – 1:57
8. "Oh Comely" – 8:18
9. "Ghost" – 4:08
10. "Untitled"  – 2:16
11. "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two" – 5:13

Personnel

• Jeff Mangum – guitar, vocals, organ, floor tom, bass guitar, tape, shortwave radio, art direction.
• Jeremy Barnes – drums, organ
• Scott Spillane – trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone, euphonium, horn arrangements
• Julian Koster – Wandering Genie organ, singing saw, bowed banjo, accordion, white noise
• Robert Schneider – home organ, air organ, bass, backing vocals, piano, horn arrangements
• Laura Carter – zanzithophone
• Rick Benjamin – trombone
• Merisa Bissinger – saxophone, flugelhorn
• James Guyatt — Percussion
• Michelle Anderson – Uilleann pipes
• Chris Bilheimer – art direction
• Brian Dewan – illustrations

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net. On the rating website Rate Your Music, which uses a weighted average system, the album is ranked #1 in 1998 and #64 in all albums overall, as well as being #3 in the indie rock genre.

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Village Voice	United States	Pazz & Jop: Albums of the Year	1998	#15
Nude as the News	U.S.	The 100 Most Compelling Albums of the 90s	1999	#3
Magnet	U.S.	Top 60 Albums, 1993-2003	2003	#1
Pitchfork Media	U.S.	Top 100 Albums of the 1990s	2003	#4

Further reading

• DeRogatis, Jim (2003). Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock. (Milwaukee) Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 0-634-05548-8.
• Heath, Max (April 28, 2008). Transience and Transcendence in the Aeroplane over the Sea. Glorious Noise. Retrieved 2010-4-8.

External links

• In the Aeroplane over the Sea at MusicBrainz
• In the Aeroplane over the Sea at Last.fm
• In the Aeroplane over the Sea at Google Music