Like a lot of people, I was slow to get into In The Aeroplane, Over The Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel’s second album which was released 25 years ago. It follows on from some early songs and than an initial album from 1996 called On Avery Island. I can’t quite remember now exactly when it did sneak up on me. I do remember driving one Saturday morning from Burwood to Ashburton on the way to pick the kids up from a football match (the days before I coached them) and becoming entranced by Two-Headed Boy. And on the freeway when Holland, 1945 came up on a mixtape and experiencing that visceral thrill.
Jeff Mangum said that before he recorded these songs, he was frequently visited by uneasy dreams of a Jewish family from the Second World War. Rather like Quentin Tarantino in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Inglorious Basterds, the album is partially an exercise in yearning nostalgia for a past that never happened.
But there does seem to be more happening than an Anne Frank concept album. It is impressionistic and not easily grasped, like the best poetry. There is plenty of sexual imagery, but it is certainly not a sexy album. Nor is it opportunistic. There’s a lot about parents as well. And carnival grotesqueness. If David Lynch had taken a different path and formed a group, the output would, you sense, be something much like this. It doesn’t easily admit of rational explanation, which makes it exasperating, exhilarating and sometimes desperately melancholy. And truly amazing.
A little like Closer by Joy Division and Spiderland by Slint, for NMH there was really nowhere left to go when they’d recorded these albums. So, unfortunately for us, they just kinda stopped, for ever on the brink. Two of the singers had some sort of a breakdown and the other one committed suicide. Obviously we would sacrifice these albums in a heartbeat if we could repair the mental damage. But that isn’t a deal that the universe is terribly interested in. What we do know is that those three albums are utterly authentic.
I was fortunate enough to actually witness these songs performed live in Melbourne about twelve years ago. The band seemed relaxed, almost joyous and it was a cathartic experience for all of us who were there. But still, there’s no avoiding the profundity of this art and even then there was a melancholic aura around the singer that you felt probably never entirely lifts. Lucky us though to have these incredible songs.
Setlist:
Holland, 1945, Neutral Milk Hotel
July! July! The Decemberists
Song against sex, Neutral Milk Hotel
Postcards from Italy, Beirut
Two-headed boy, Neutral Milk Hotel
In my mind, Amanda Palmer
Ghost, Neutral Milk Hotel
The moon, The Microphones
Oh comely, Neutral Milk Hotel
So you wanna be a superhero, Carissa’s Wierd
Gardenhead/Leave me alone, Neutral Milk Hotel
Some blood for Luna, Dwaal Troupe