I realise I’m doing this completely the wrong way around, but I really enjoy discovering older music and identifying the newer music it has influenced. My most recent discovery is Neutral Milk Hotel. I’ll be honest, it was April Ludgate mentioning that they were her favourite band on a certain episode of Parks and Recreation that sparked my interest. On my first listen I can already tell that this is an iconic album. Is it possible to feel nostalgic for a time you weren’t old enough to appreciate the music? Perhaps as a music lover, six is old enough to absorb something of the mood of the music you’re constantly surrounded with? Perhaps as a person with much older siblings, something of the 90’s grunge-is-cool angst will always have a place in my heart. So first impressions include the thought that Neutral Milk Hotel has influenced a number of the bands that characterised my teenage listening, and I’ll admit, the playlist for my angstier days today too. Death Cab for Cutie has something of the unmastered guitar style in common with the band and the gritty vocal style is echoed across the board, ranging from bands like Blink182 and Green Day to the iconic Joy Division. Enter: trumpets, and suddenly I’m thinking about Beirut. It’s kind of a challenge to put In the Aeroplane Over the Sea into a box, and I really like that about it.
While some of the lyrics on the album make you sit up a little straighter in surprise, the whole effect is not unpleasant. Think Kevin Drew or Sufjan Stevens. Even at first glance it seems as though this album considers some pretty contentious issues. And perhaps the verb in that previous sentence is what makes even the grittiest lines on the album palatable. I find it difficult to critique a person’s struggle, no matter how “offensive” or explicit his expression thereof might be. It also helps that the album has so many playful moments, driven by accordion, trumpet and choral voices. It’s also hard to be offended by something that doesn’t take itself particularly seriously, or at least that is the case for me.
While some may find it a callous juxtaposition to put a line like, “You were the king of carrot flowers”, which veers into the realm of nonsense verse, in the same song as “your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking’, I must admit that I find there to be something really apt about placing images of childhood and innocence alongside the harshness of the adult world that all children are inevitably exposed to at some point. Perhaps the album is written from the perspective of a person who experienced this exposure a bit too soon and in its worst form. But the album has a bigger emotional range than you may imagine. It is peppered with hopeful instrumentals, and ranges from sparse and emotional to verbose and playful. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a rich and interesting album that has sparked my interest in the rest of Neutral Milk Hotel’s work, which I now have to confess I have not yet explored. Let’s do that together?
