Neutral Milk Hotel
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

THE REVIEW

Under the name Neutral Milk Hotel hides the American singer-songwriter Jeff Magnum. This album is the band's last, named In The Airplane Over The Sea, dating back to 1998, almost an eternity, and we immensely miss that mournful, tormented, and alluring style. Unique. Capable of evoking astronomically distant names like Buckley (father), Lanegan, Cohen, Jandek, Cobain, and together, none. For instance, they remind me of the early Violent Femmes mixed with the most elegiac Van Morrison.

Jeff M. is one of the most sensitive talents of his generation. In The Airplane... is a unique, splendid, and sick album, seemingly having as its recurrent theme the obsession caused by nostalgia, memory, the awareness of one's weaknesses and existential impotence, the torment and longing that grips those who are prisoners of regret, the inability to get back on one's feet and into the game. 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.

"The only girl I ever loved / Was born with flowers in her eyes..."

An album singular indeed, with that "disturbed" singing that interposes with rural sounds catapulted forcefully to our days. The acoustic tracks are splendid, such as 2 Headed Boy Part 1 and 2, or the long Oh Comely, the latter 8 minutes of bitter cry that still does not discourage but, on the contrary, regenerates, finally giving an indistinct feeling of peace, purgatory of souls guilty of perhaps feeling too much emotion, the piece Oh Comely is a long dialogue with the acoustic guitar, then around the sixth minute it's the vocal laments that make us swoon ò core. As splendid are the more intense rock melodies (the almost Nirvana-like Holland 1945), and peaks of indie energy like “Ghost.”
The opening suite is absolutely engaging and memorable (The King of Carrot Flowers that extends into the second part, that is, track 2 of the album), as well as the title track (track 3). Enthralling start.

However, an album unknown to those who do not frequent the late 90s U.S. indie scene, Spin, I believe, even places it among the top of the nineties, a work that stands out well ABOVE the highly overrated albums of more famous and equally overrated peers (I won’t name names to avoid making enemies).
It's a pity that the album did not have national distribution. Merge should be distributed by Wide, but it's unclear why they privilege some titles over others.