Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (33 1/3) (Paperback)

by Kim Cooper (Author)
Key Phrases: neutral milk hotel, horn parts, Jeff Mangum, Scott Spillane, Elf Power (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"'A brilliant series of pocket-sized books focussing on a classic album. Each one a work of real love.' NME"

Product Description
Of all the recordings to emerge from the Athens-via-Denver collective called Elephant 6, Neutral Milk Hotel’s second album is the one that has worked its way under the most skins. Magnet magazine named it the best album of the 1990s, and Creative Loafing recently devoted a cover story to one fan’s quest to understand why band leader Jeff Mangum dropped out of sight soon after Aeroplane’s release. The record sells steadily to an audience that finds it through word of mouth.

Weird, beautiful, absorbing, difficult, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea is a surrealist text loosely based on the life, suffering and reincarnation of Anne Frank, with guest appearances from a pair of Siamese twins menaced by the cold and carnivores, a two-headed boy bobbing in a jar, anthropomorphic vegetables and a variety of immature erotic horrors.

Mangum sings his dreamlike narratives with a dreamer's intensity, his creaky, off key voice occasionally breaking as he struggles to complete each dense couplet. The music is like nothing else in the 90s indie underground: a psychedelic brass band, its members self-taught, forging polychromatic washes of mood and tribute. The songs stick to one narrow key, the images repeat and circle back, and to listen is to be absorbed into a singular, heart-rending vision.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (November 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082641690X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826416902
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #124,552 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Thirty Three and a Third Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible book., December 7, 2005

By	ciano - See all my reviews

Let me first say this: I am incredibly biased. ITAOTS is one of my all-time favorite albums, and I have many memories inextricably tied to it. I would argue, however, that appreciation of the album is not even a prerequisite to enjoy the book. Kim Cooper has compiled a beautiful account of a group of friends who, through good fortune, a wealth of talent, and most of all an undying belief in the power of music, created one of the most powerful records ever set to tape.

Obsessively detailing recording techniques, the origins of the songs, and the background of all involved, Cooper interviews all principles (except for elusive singer/songwriter Jeff Mangum, though I maintain that this only adds to the power of the book), creating a complete and fascinating story. She has a novelist's eye for the necessary detail and for plot development, and we become incredibly attached to the hugely intelligent and friendly Elephant 6 clique that helped the album to fruition.

This book is obviously a must-read for all interested in the Elephant 6 Collective or Neutral Milk Hotel, but at the same time it is too good to remain within those crowds. That would be like preaching to the choir. We have here an inspirational document of the continuing power of music, something that should be on required reading lists in every music program in every school. This here is proof that all outcasts and misfits who have found solace in the healing properties of music can succeed beyond their wildest dreams.

Jeff Mangum may or may not produce an album again, but ITAOTS is good enough for now. This book is not only a worthy tribute, but an accomplishment in and of itself. Congratulations, Ms. Cooper, you have written a masterpiece.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Overview of a Legendary Band, December 2, 2005

By	J. Kuykendall (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I dreaded this book so much. I assumed it would be another convoluted attempt to interpret Netural Milk Hotel's surrealistic lyrics and connect them into a narrative that exists only in one person's imagination, offering no insight into the band itself, not to mention its ringleader and savant singer/songwriter, Jeff Mangum--the sort of thing that generally keeps me away from Neutral Milk Hotel messageboards and fellow fans. But Kim Cooper devotes only one very brief chapter to that hopeless task, and spends the rest of the book chronicling the history of the creative musical collective that surrounds Neutral Milk, "Elephant 6," and showing how Mangum was always at the center, until, after his sophomore album's unexpected success, he suddenly retreated from the spotlight, which caused some to unfairly (and inaccurately) label him the indie rock equivalent of the mentally ill Syd Barrett.
Cooper interviews Robert Schneider (Apples in Stereo), Bryan Poole (Elf Power), Ben Crum (Great Lakes), and Laura Carter, Scott Spillane, and Julian Koster (all of NMH), as well as others connected to Elephant 6, for a pretty complete history that follows this constructed family of musicians from Ruston, Louisiana to Athens, Georgia, with stops in Denver and New York City. (Jeff Mangum declined to be interviewed, which gives the narrative the odd feeling that its central character is deceased.) There are some vivid and funny anecdotes about life lived in uncomfortably close communal quarters with little food and money, with Mangum sleeping in a haunted closet (which informed the song "Ghost"), or working out songs in the bathroom, of life on the road, and Spillane almost losing thousands of dollars in tour money at a Pizza Hut.
I've been an Elephant 6 fan for a long time, hung out at concerts, obsessively collected limited edition vinyl singles, et cetera., so I devoured this all in a sitting, but I was surprised to find how deeply moved I was. I felt stunned. Kind of like listening to a Neutral Milk Hotel album.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading For Any Fan Of Indy Music, February 21, 2006

By	Andy French "Crotchety Music Fan" (Mission Hill) - See all my reviews

The 33 1/3 series of music books has to be one of the most entertaining, inspired and informative sets of music and cultural writing ever to come out. And Neutral Milk Hotel was perhaps one of the best indy bands ever to record. So it only makes sense that a 33 1/3 book about NMH would be an amazing experience.

And it is.

The mastermind behind NMH, Jeff Mangum, is famously elusive and his lyrics are beautifully mysterious. So if ever an album cried out for an explanatory book to be written about it, it's "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea".

Yet, at the same time, I was slightly hesitant to read this book - I'm always afraid that learning about a song's lyrics (even sometimes learning exactly what the words are) might ruin my deeply personal enjoyment of the music itself.

But you needn't worry about that with this book. I came away from it appreciating NMH all the more.

Kim Cooper does an excellent job of describing the unique coming together of people, places and ideas that created one of the most unusual and inspired albums of all time. I especially enjoyed learning about the other members of NMH - something that's not often talked about because of the deification of Jeff Mangum, however well-deserved.

And this book does what the best books about cultural phenomena do - it demystifies its subject without ruining the wonder and beauty of the music itself.

Thanks, Kim Cooper!