In The Aeroplane Over The Sea may contain even more solo acoustic compositions than its predecessor, but in a nice turn of irony, it's also the most collaborative Neutral Milk Hotel offering. The album possesses an intimacy, and a sense of purpose, that could only come from shared experience. It's even more conceptual than its multi-layered predecessor, taking on history, faith and spirituality as some of its central themes. But the group's aim was not as much to reinterpret these themes as to rediscover them. The result is very personal and not always a pretty, stream-of-consciousness account of what was gained from the experience.
Named Best Album of the 1990s by Magnet Magazine, Aeroplane gives us Jeff Mangum's powerful solo acoustic work, full horn-section marches, history, religion and sex. Everything you hoped for and more!
Track list:
1 The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. 1
2 The King of Carrot Flowers, PTS. 2-3
3 In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
4 Two-Headed Boy
5 The Fool
6 Holland, 1945
7 Communist Daughter
8 Oh Comely
9 Ghost
10 The Penny Arcade in California
11 Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2