reported today a review of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Will Robinson Sheff, leader of Okkervil River. More than a critical review, this is an act of love. Find the original version here .
When the dust shall rest, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Neutral Milk Hotel will not only be recognized as one of the best albums of the 90, but as one of the best ever. I am not saying haughtily cause those who have never heard the obscure group, and certainly not tell her to hit the ego of frontman Jeff Mangum, frightened from the tasting of quasi-fame took him to the point of preferring imprisonment in contact with the outside world just to let them know you may not ever be another album by Neutral Milk Hotel. I say this because it is one of the few things in music that I truly believe and feel, strongly and somewhat 'naive, that if everyone had a copy of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea magically become the world a better place.
I'm not the only one to think so. In fact, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea di solito ispira reazioni del genere nelle persone (reazioni che, casualmente, terrorizzano il suo creatore). Nonostante faccia parte di un gruppo poco noto, Jeff Mangum ha generato un livello di devozione simile a quello ispirato da figure letterarie come William Blake e Walt Whitman. Come Blake, Mangum utilizza una mitologia profondamente personale che veicola un immaginario surreale in un realismo emotivo ed è costruita su tematiche mistiche come la reincarnazione, esseri da altri pianeti e la sacralità di mostri ed emarginati. Come Whitman, le parole di Mangum sono un flusso estasiato di righe e righe. E come entrambi gli scrittori, il lavoro di Mangum è composto in egual misura di un'avvolgente compassione per la gente e the horror of hatred and violence.
One of the most extraordinary aircraft and that is so ambitious that it should have been a total failure on which to laugh. Using an acoustic guitar, percussion, bass, heavily distorted, a banjo played with a bow, a theremin, bagpipes and trumpets and trombones of the Salvation Army, Mangum and company have created a concept and psychedelic epic, midway between folk and punk , life and death of Anne Frank, and the next reincarnation through the art of her diary, which causes the player to create an elaborate fantasy in which he will protect Anna after being reborn as his Siamese twin. And it works. Mangum sings of dead dogs that fade and disappear, semen stains the mountain tops, bridges exploding, and writhe, ghosts hidden with pink eyes that look at a comet orbiting the earth, tapping of fetuses in the bottle fingers on the cans, with hearts full of needles that sing, couples' rooms in the afternoon sun with your fingers in one's mouth, through the grooves of the spine, through their souls. It all sounds ridiculous, but it is terribly and indescribably moving, because Mangum is singing about the horror and beauty in the world, and how to transcend the horror of beauty annihilated. She sings of love, but a greater love than that between a boy and a girl; sings of love for the world around us and also for those who try, succeed, destroy us. And singing is also something else, difficult to describe in words, but that is true, vivid and moving through his surreal imagery and its carpet of sound, more and more light at every listening.
Everyone I know have this album and guard it like a treasure. It has helped some of my friends to cope with their depression, they have been to weddings where Aeroplane songs were used as first dance, I know people who would want played at your funeral. I understand why Mangum, empathically humble and reserved, is so terrified by the level of devotion inspired from this collection of songs, but I also understand the devotion. In a world that constantly seems rough, poor and miserable, where cynicism is the dominant philosophy and sarcasm the dominant behavior, where what has demonstrated its ability to buy, where the most popular TV programs encourage us to laugh at people who volunteer become frightened and humiliated in public for money, this album shows us the world of shimmering beauty, transparent, round, able to redeem or to destroy the basis of how much love you feel for him, and finally sacred.
-Will Robinson Sheff
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