In 2011, after nearly 15 years since Neutral Milk Hotel disappeared, Jeff Mangum announced a small run of solo concerts and a lavish box-set of NMH's recordings. Needless to say, I got very excited, even more so when All Tomorrow's Parties announced he'd be curating and playing one of their weekenders. I was also hugely excited by the box-set because it contained a whole bunch of NMH songs I'd only ever heard about. I'd been listening to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and On Avery Island for years and the thought of hearing some new (to me) NMH songs put a huge smile on my face. At ATP that March, I bought the box-set on the Saturday morning after seeing Jeff for the first time the night before and the first thing I did when I got home was carefully open the box and play all the records. I was like a child at Christmas.
On Avery Island
I wrote about NMH's debut album on here a few months ago, and a much more detailed story can be found here. On Avery Island seems to have two different covers depending where and when you buy a copy, and this one is the same as my LP, but without the red border and title and on a very nice gatefold. I saw a bunch of copies with this cover on non-gatefold in Fopp a while back for a fiver each (vinyl is rarely a bargain in Fopp), but given that I already had two copies, I didn't bother getting a third.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Whether you agree that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is the greatest album of all time or not is irrelevant because there's no denying the huge following it has. Almost everyone I've ever spoken to about NMH have either been huge fans of this album, or have never heard of it, which says a lot about how great it is. Personally, I adore it and I wrote about that at great length here. I have so much time for this album and I'm pretty sure the people who work at Spillers will never know quite how thankful I am for their hand in me discovering this album.
Ferris Wheel on Fire EP
Here's where it starts to get interesting - those NMH songs we haven't played a million times. This EP contains eight acoustic recordings between 1992 and 1995. Some are familiar from the albums and Jeff's live album Live at Jittery Joes' and others contain lyrics that later made their way into other songs (Oh Sister shares some lines with the classic Oh Comely, and My Dream Girl Don't Exist finishes with the line "and now she knows she'll never be afraid", just as Ghost does). Most exciting here is the emotion in Jeff's voice and the strum of his guitar and the ghostly, raw echo in the room. It makes you feel like you're sat there with him and never fails to remind me of seeing him sat there on the stage at ATP. On the Sunday night we went down the front and as he walked on stage there was a strange look in his eyes that seemed to me to be a mix of fear and disdain, but as soon as he started playing you tell that was just the place Jeff needed to be to play these songs.
The whole EP makes for lovely listening and you get to see many different sides of Jeff's music, whether it's the fast-singing spit on A Baby for Pree / Glow Into You, almost punk on Home, or haunting and slow on April 8th. I never like to put songs from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea on mixtapes, because I love how the album works as a whole, so I'd instead be tempted to use one of these songs. Eight brilliant individual slices of Neutral Milk Hotel.
Everything Is EP
Everything Is contains some the earlier NMH songs, when the fuzz was cranked way up and the band were a lot more reminiscent of their Elephant 6 friends like The Olivia Tremor Control. The whole thing comes across more laid back and lo-fi and you could easily not realise you were listening to NMH at times. Jeff still sings fast, but like he's more content to let the words fly out at a pleasant pace than later where he can't get them out fast enough. When you place the record before On Avery Island in your mind, it makes sense and gives you a good idea of the musical progression. I'm definitely less keen on these songs, but still enjoy them (Everything Is and Here We Are are the highlights for me). They're the Neutral Milk Hotel songs you play on a sunny day, sat out in a field relaxing, except for Ruby Bulbs which is pretty hard on the ears.
Little Birds
There's no denying that £80 is a lot to spend on anything, but I stand by the following comment - it's almost worth every penny for Little Birds alone. Little Birds is the only post-Aeroplane NMH song to ever surface, a statement that immediately makes you wonder what they might have put out had they not called it quits so soon. It's a thought I never really had until I heard about this song and where it fits chronologically, but I can't begin to imagine how exciting a third NMH album would have been.
It's a thought that's even more exciting when you hear Little Birds because it's one of Jeff's finest songs. I know that's a grand statement, and I'm not saying it's the best, just in the top 10, possibly top 5, depending on the day. This 7" contains Unfinished Version One and Unfinished Version Two (a live version) and you can't help but wonder why on earth anyone would want to change anything for a final version. Little Birds it a dark and brutal story and possibly a glimpse into where Jeff's mind was at the time. The line "Do you really want the burning hell that we believe in?" must be one of his darkest. It's a fairly uneasy listen, but it's beautiful at the same time and I love it. If this was the natural progression from Aeroplane to album #3 then we would have been in for a very strange, dark treat.
If you have six minutes spare, find the song on the internet and listen to it with the lyrics in front of you. You won't come away feeling uplifted, but it's such a great song it'll be worth it.
You've Passed / Where You'll Find Me Now
This 7" contains alternate recordings of two songs from On Avery Island - You've Passed and Where You'll Find Me Now, the latter being a later version of Glow Into You from the Ferris Wheel on Fire EP. You've Passed seems even fuzzier than it did before (if that's possible) and Where You'll Find Me Now is slowed down so much it almost sounds like you're playing it at the wrong speed (I wasn't; I checked). It's quite a strange version and I can't say I like it as much as the original. An interesting listen nonetheless.
Holland, 1945
The final record in the box is the 7" picture disc of Holland, 1945 with Engine on the b-side. Holland, 1945 was the only "single" from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in that it was only one released, but also the only song that you could remove from that album and listen to as a song on it's own. Engine is Jeff's attempt at a child's song, although I imagine most children might struggle with his voice and raw guitar strum. The 7" comes wrapped in a poster that I think came with the original. This poster is the reason that some people call the untitled track on Aeroplane by the name The Penny Arcade in California as the album's tracklisting is given and that title is next to number 10. On the reverse is the Elephant 6 logo.
The box and posters
Included in the box-set are two 24"x24" posters, one of the cover and the other of the flying gramphones from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. I think all three of the bits of art on In the Aeroplane... are great (the cover with the woman with a drum for a head, the long-legged marching band and the flying gramophones) and if I wasn't so keen to keep my box-set in perfect condition I'd be tempted to frame it.
Speaking of condition, I come to my only problem with this box. When I got home from ATP, I was excited to play the records, but at the same time a little disappointed with what had happened to my box, presumably in transit - the box is structured so that the 7"s sit in the middle, with the 10"s above them, then the LPs, using a cardboard construction that sits in the box to hold them in place. However, this clearly wasn't very reliable as mine arrived slightly broken. The records were all fine (there's the smallest dint in the edge of the Everything Is EP) but it was still annoying. Luckily, I'd opened it before I went to see Jeff's shows in the Union Chapel that week, because at the merch stand they had replacement parts for the box-sets (which they should have had at ATP, but didn't). The guy let me have one when I told him what had happened to my copy and was saying that he'd bought one too, but hadn't opened it. He'd tried unfolding the replacement structure, but to no luck and, after a quick look at the one he gave me, I couldn't get mine to unfold either. That's why in the picture below I have a unfolded piece of cardboard next to the bottom layer of the box - mine may not be in mint condition now, but theoretically it could be, which is fine by me. I'm never going to sell it anyway.
So, all in all, a lovely box-set containing some incredible songs. I think they did a great job on this one and I'm very happy with it indeed. It's a pretty special way to remember a very special band.
Format: double gatefold 12", double 10", double 7", picture disc 7", three posters, box set
Tracks: 44
Cost: £80 new
Bought: gig
When: 10/03/12
Colour: Black, picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no
