In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (Merge, 1998)
Here is a record that took me a long time to even care about in the slightest. I always heard about Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea being a pure classic, if not one of the greatest indie rock albums of all time (though the rock is few and far between here). When I finally decided to give it a chance about five years ago, I was disgusted. Not really, but I LOATHED Jeff Mangum's voice. And, since I hardly ever pay attention to lyrics, I didn't understand the claims that he was this genius. Now, many moons and several tries later, I sort of get it. Mangum's voice still makes me cringe at times, and I still feel a little underwhelmed by the record as a whole. But, there are some really great moments, the best being "Holland, 1945." What an incredibly gnarly song, am I right? The untitled instrumental track is also great. If only the rest of the record was along those lines. A lot of the soft moments lose me, but don't get me wrong, there are some choice ones. Overall, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a decent lo-fi, folky chamber pop album. I don't think it's the best of the 90s or anything like that, though.
Top jams: "King of Carrot Pt. 1," "Two-Headed Boy," "Holland, 1945," "Oh Comely," "(untitled)," "Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2"
Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement (Matador, 1992)
It blows my mind that in some circles, Slanted and Enchanted is considered THE Pavement album of all Pavement albums. It's good, I'm not going to argue that. But, the best? Really? It's completely uneven, sounds like shit (of course, I know that's cool now, but it is difficult in this case), and every other album is better, by a lot. "Summer Babe (Winter Version)," "Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17" and "Perfume-V" are all awesome, however. And, I do enjoy the punk edge that is missing from their four other albums. Like I said earlier, it is just crazy to me that there are people out there who consider this better than anything else the band has done. You people are nuts.
Top jams: "Summer Babe (Winter Version)," "Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17," "Loretta's Scars," "Here," "Perfume-V"
Wowee Zowee! - Pavement (Matador, 1995)
First and foremost, I shall thank my boy, band mate and fellow blogger Alec Jensen for the gift of the original version of Wowee Zowee! about two years ago. My first thoughts about Pavement's third and probably most bizarre album were that it was overwhelming and a conundrum. On first listen, I didn't think there were any memorable songs at all. I know, I was a complete idiot, because after spending some time with it much more recently, I realize it is brilliant. It's still a bit overwhelming, with a whopping 18 songs. And I don't love all of it, only about half of it. But as an album, it is a doozy. It fits in perfectly between the badass slackery of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and the more polished (but in my opinion equally as brilliant) Brighten the Corners. The best songs here ("Rattled by the Rush," "Grave Architecture," "Kennel District," "Pueblo") are easily on par with the best on the other two mentioned, as well as Terror Twilight. I definitely get bored in places, but the challenge of getting through those moments is worth it to hear the highlights. This band was ridiculous.
Top jams: "Rattled by the Rush," "Black Out," "Grounded," "Best Friend's Arm," "Grave Architecture," "AT&T," "Kennel District," "Pueblo"
Pinback - Pinback (Ace Fu, 1999)
I am not surprised at all that I fell in love with this, Pinback's debut. Rising out of the ashes of Three Mile Pilot, it sounds like early Death Cab for Cutie before early Death Cab for Cutie sounded like early Death Cab for Cutie. I guess this is a bit more cyclical, robotic and sounds much less emotionally charged. The guitar tones and melodies are there, though. And boy are those melodies there, in the best way. It's all about the contrast between the dire tone of the songs, those wonderful, chimey guitar lines, the bland and lifeless drum beats and the incredibly catchy and especially awesome melodies. "Crutch" is the prime example of this. I'm not sure why I don't listen to this more.
Top jams: "Tripoli," "Chaos Engine," "Shag," "Crutch," "Lyon," "Montaigne"
3 comments:
one of the things i love most about neutral milk hotel is his voice, go figure.
Aeroplane took me a very long time. I bought it in 12th grade, solely because of Holland, 1945 and yeah, at first I didn't really get what the deal with most of the rest of the album was. I was hoping for more of that song, it shows up in parts sure (the "3" part of King Of Carrot Flowers Part 2 & 3 for instance) but clearly the album is not some big version of that one song.
I gave it plays here and there for the next few years, but it definitely wasn't until the second half of college that, you know, it… happened. Call it diffusion, but it took a lot of occasional listening and I think honestly a very important component was picking up the background of the album. That these very weird weirdos in Georgia holed up in a house (odd fact: Mangum lived in the room next to Brian Poole from Of Montreal), did their fair share of drugs, and the one of them became unusually enamored with Anne Frank of all things, and that they did it all so earnestly with the byproduct being this album… it adds up to something that feels otherworldy yet obtusely your own.
The best I can say though is what I wrote on a photo I took of the Elephant 6 holiday show last year which, for the sake of brevity, I'll leave over here.
Now! Beyond all that! I'm at least half-nuts, but I allege that this is probably well-established already. Slanted & Enchanted is easily my #2 album Pavement album if not, if not! my #1. The other contendah in the ring? Crooked Rain, of course! And it's a mighty contender at that. I honestly like every song on the album QUITE a bit which is more generous than I can say about any of their other albums (though what you wrote has made me want to give Wowee Zowee yet another chance. I just… I can't make it through! Try harder, I will just have to try harder.)
I understand why it's a divisive album though. It is messy (which I love) and its pacing as an album is psychotic at best (again, *~*~LoViN' iT~*~*) and the songs make no sense and it's like they didn't give a damn. But I tell you! If you embrace these things, this album is a metric shit load of fun. Recommended listening setting: as the anthem to your third wind in an extended road trip where you've gone loopy but there's still more driving to do before you can call it quits.
Alright. That's enough Dokas. This comment brought to you by: My Morning Coffee "fueling extended blog comments since 1999"
Dokas, thank you so much for the long, interesting comment. I am serious.
I actually read the 33 1/3 about "In the Aeroplane..." and it was fascinating, and I thought that would help me to develop love for the actual album. It only helped a little. But, do not fret, I'm not giving up on it or anything. I plan on spending more time with it in the future.
The same for "Slanted and Enchanted." You are totally right, though, the "not-giving-a-shit" factor of the album is incredibly appealing.
Love ya!
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