from the LP In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Merge Records, 1998Promptly losing your shit & proceeding to have yourself locked up in an institution after finishing the sessions for your latest record is certainly one way to make sure your album gets noticed---not saying that Jeff Magnum’s nervous breakdown was a premeditated marketing ploy, I’m not quite that cynical, but he surely knew it wasn’t going to hurt his band’s (Neutral Milk Hotel) career the way spending time inside a mental hospital might damage the reputation of an individual not regarded as an “artist”. People drool over this album like it was fashioned from the tears of God or something, where for me it’s a rather uneven affair, overwrought in many places, and tightly wound to say the least. I have to concede, though, that on a handful of songs his mastery of both language & melancholia is undeniable, weaving stripped-down timeless tales that mask their impact inside clouds of sing-song childlike sincerity, “…when you were young you were the king of carrot flowers, and how you built a tower tumbling through the trees, in holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your feet…and your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder, and dad would throw the garbage all across the floor, as we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for…and your mom would drink until she was no longer speaking, and dad would dream of all the different ways to die, each one a little more than he could dare to try…” And that emotive accordion, always a nice touch!
