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Rating: 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!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (03:22)
What a beautiful face I have found in this place
That is circling all 'round the sun
What a beautiful dream that could flash
On the screen in a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet let me hold it close and keep it here
With me
And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly
From the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be in the arms of all I'm keeping here with me
What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anne's ghost all around hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees
Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through your mouth
To make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
But now we keep where we don't know
Our secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name
What a beautiful face I have found in this place
That is circling all 'round the sun
When we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
04 Two-Headed Boy (04:26)
Two headed boy
All floating in glass
The sun it has passed
Now it's blacker than black
I can hear as you tap on your jar
And I am listening to hear where you are
I am listening to hear where you are
Two headed boy
Put on sunday shoes
And dance round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart
Catching signals that sound in the dark
Catching signals that sound in the dark
We will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep beside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their cloud
Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep beside
Now your eyes ain't moving now
They just lay there in their cloud
Two headed boy
There's no reason to grieve
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
And I will take you and leave you alone
Watching spirals of white softly flow
Over your eyelids and all you did
Will wait until the point when you let go
Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee
06 Holland, 1945 (03:12)
2, 1, 2, 3, 4
The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come
But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves at least enough to carry on
And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart
But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves at least enough to carry on
And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move any more
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes
07 Communist Daughter (01:57)
Sweet communist,
The Communist Daughter,
Standing on the seaweed water,
Semen stains the mountaintop,
Semen stains the mountaintop.
With coca leaves along the border,
Sweetness swings from every corner
Cars careening from the clouds,
The bridges burst and twist around,
And wanting something warm and moving
Bends towards herself
The soothing proves that she must still exist,
She moves herself about her fist.
Sweet communist,
The communist daughter,
Standing on the seaweed water,
Semen stains the mountaintops,
Semen stains the mountaintops.
De, de, de
08 Oh Comely (08:18)
Oh comely
I will be with you when you lose your breath
Chasing the only meaningful memory you thought you had left
With some pretty bright and bubbly terrible scene
That was doing her thing on your chest
But oh comely
It isn't as pretty as you'd like to guess
In your memory, you're drunk on your automy
It doesn't mean anything at all
Oh comely
All of your friends are all letting you blow
Bristling and ugly
Bursting with fruits falling out from the holes
Of some pretty bright and bubbly friend
You could need to say comforting things in your ear
But oh comely
There isn't such one friend that you could find here
Standing next to me
He's only my enemy
I'll crush him with everything I own
Say what you want to say
And hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracles…
For me
Your father made fetuses
With flesh licking ladies
While you and your mother
Were asleep in the trailer park
Thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadiums
The music and medicine you needed for comforting
So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving
And pluck all your silly strings
And bend all your notes for me
Soft silly music is meaningful magical
The movements were beautiful
All in your ovaries
All of them milking with green fleshy flowers
While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines
Smelling of semen all under the garden
Was all you were needing when you still believed in me
Say what you want to say
And hang for your hollow ways
Moving your mouth to pull out all your miracles…
For me
I know they buried her body with others
Her sister and mother and 500 families
And will she remember me 50 years later
I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Know all your enemies
We know who our enemies are
Goldaline my dear
We will fold and freeze together
Far away from here
There is sun and spring and green forever
But now we move to feel
For ourselves inside some stranger's stomach
Place your body here
Let your skin begin to blend itself with mine
09 Ghost (04:08)
Ghost, ghost,
I know you were within me,
Feel as you fly
In from the clouds above the city
Into one that I
Loved with all that was left within me
Till we tore in two,
Now wings and rings,
And there're so many waiting here for you.
And she was born in a bottle-rocket,
1929,
With wings that ringed around a socket
Right between her spine
All drenched in milk in holy water pouring from the sky,
I know that she will live forever,
She won't ever die,
She goes,
And now she knows she'll never be afraid,
To watch the morning paper blow into a hole
where no one can escape,
De, de, de..
And one day in New York City baby,
A girl fell from the sky,
From the top of a burning apartment building
fourteen stories high,
And when her spirit left her body,
How it split the sun!
I know that she will live forever
All goes on and on and on and
She goes,
And now she knows she'll never be afraid
To watch the morning paper blow into a hole
where no-one can escape,
De, de, de.
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Other reviews
By Mario
Jeff M. is one of the most sensitive talents of his generation.
This album is like a great liberating cry, Jeff puts aside modesty and pride, he torments and wounds himself in an attempt of an ultimate liberation, exorcism from pain.
By Kurtd
"The King of Carrot Flowers" alone would be enough to make us understand the greatness of this group.
This is a Masterpiece that must be guarded with extreme jealousy.
