Neutral Milk Hotel
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

THE REVIEW

Creating a concept album is always a risk: on one hand, the theme, the character, or the event the record focuses on can become too invasive, "suffocating" the tracks in a kind of exercise in correct "thematic syntax"; on the other hand, this object of focus may end up being a mere pretense in relation to the songwriting, almost serving as filler to justify any fil rouge among the various parts of the work.

Neutral Milk Hotel took the risk and found the right key: the life of Anne Frank, the Holocaust, and all the wealth of information and reflections that come with it are sublimated through the exploration of the sensations and emotions of an adolescent in an extremely challenging historical and personal context. Anne Frank is, above all, a terribly sensitive girl, and all her doubts, expectations, and passions are echoed and related to those of Jeff Magnum, the band's leader, who, with his chanting, nasal, and subtly hoarse voice, brings them to us as current and filtered through his personal experience. Anne Frank's diary thus does not come across as a dusty book but pulses with a living, current energy.

Neutral Milk Hotel was an indie band from the '90s. The folk accent was integral to their sound thanks to an extensive use of the acoustic guitar aimed at delivering torrents of notes that formed the backbone of a significant portion of the tracks. There are also bursts of guitar and bass, but they are judiciously metered, and one notices the presence of rather "eccentric" instruments: trumpets with a triumphant flavor, incisive bagpipe parts, and even bizarre arrangements with the singing-saw!

The first two songs (“The King of Carrots Flowers pt. One” and “The King of Carrots Flowers pts. Two & Three”) are actually a single piece divided into three movements: a fairy-tale like ballad for guitar opens the show, and it almost feels like leafing through a storybook while reading the introduction; the track gently shifts atmosphere, transforming into a kind of ascetic mantra that gradually develops and enriches itself, eventually becoming a punk-song.

The Title-track is another ballad with a splendid melodic opening led by a voice filled with emotion and punctuated by the singing-saw: we are at the amusement park on a merry-go-round with horses. The breeze caresses our faces, and we sweetly reminisce with a touch of melancholy about our teenage hopes.

With “Two-Headed Boy,” the folk roots make an insistent presence felt. Its brisk rhythm gradually slows down and leads us through a beautiful and unexpected transition to the instrumental song “The Fool,” where the sensation is that of being in a village square where the band makes its entrance for a parade with triumphant and martial tones.

But it's time to run with “Holland, 1945”! Electric blasts take us towards a frenzied punk at full speed where we must be very careful to avoid guitar and bass explosions.

Then the mood becomes more introspective with the brief nocturnal soliloquy of “Communist Daughter” crafted with nocturnal and electronic cracklings and especially with “Oh Comely,” a tormented ballad, almost a grunge-unplugged of over eight minutes during which it gradually takes on the characteristics of an authentic prayer.

With “Ghost,” the level of unease rises exponentially as the piece develops, giving the impression of an internal agitation while the body remains motionless waiting for the inevitable catastrophe that promptly materializes at the end of the track, in a swirling crescendo of the various instruments that lead to a climax of amorally, almost joyously, destructive “No Name” where leading lines of bagpipe become the guiding thread of the surrounding detonations.

The album closes with “Two-Headed Boy pt. Two,” a twilight epitaph where the spirit of Anne seems to reconcile with her unjust fate, yet at the same time reiterates that she will forever hold a deep regret: that of the life that was taken from her too soon.

Almost a masterpiece!