Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Neutral Milk Hotel
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
(Merge, 1998)
Jeff Mangum's magnum opus.
Madness and genius have long been intertwined. Time has given us a myriad of schizophrenic virtuosos, crackpot poets, opiated authors, and bipolar bright sparks -- and then there are people like Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. While he may once have claimed to have spent a year living and writing in a haunted closet in Denver, Mangum is what I'd call a voluntary madman -- just an everyday guy with the bravery and brilliance to plumb the deepest cavities of his imagination.
In An Aeroplane Over The Sea is Mangum's pomegranate -- the intricate fruit of his psychological labours, closeted or otherwise. Loosely based on recurring dreams about a Jewish Family during WWII, and often yielding lyrics and sounds that defy immediate comprehension, it starts accessibly enough with The King of Carrot Flowers Part 1, a tale of adolescent rites ("as we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for") and domestic misery ("your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder") backed with fetching guitar and accordion. The title track is Magnum's version of a love song carried on acoustic strums, confronting you with unnerving lyrics like "I would push my fingers through your mouth to make those muscles move that made your voice so smooth and sweet", and tones which sound like the whimpering call of a killer whale. Album highpoint Holland, 1945 is Mangum's devastatingly beautiful tribute to the holocaust and his supposed muse, Anne Frank, the singer noting the "indentions in the sheets where their bodies once moved" while an overdriven guitar and horn arrangement waxes ironically upbeat.
It's baroque stuff, employing a whole circus of instruments as arcane as Mangum's lyrics: the flugelhorn, Wandering Genie organ, zanzithophone, Uilleann pipes, and bowed banjo, and surely, the oughties influx of old-timey instrumentation into US indie-rock started here. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea may sometimes seem a little overwrought, but there is something in Mangum's off-tune, emotively-drenched voice that we can all understand. And even if it makes little sense at first, he assures us "I will shout until they know what I mean."
Liz Kulze
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 06/04/2010
Further Listening
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha (Fargo, 2007)
Elliott Smith – New Moon (Domino, 2007)
Devendra Bandhart – Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon (XL, 2007)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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-
Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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Comments
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A truly masterpiece. Fundamental.
Posted by M.A.Melo at 2:49 PM GMT 06/04/2010 Report Abuse
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I was told by an Iranian friend once that if you dropped even one juicy seed from the pomegranate, it was bad luck. Obviously,while making this album, Mangum dropped none.
Posted by poppa john at 3:15 PM GMT 06/04/2010 Report Abuse
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I was told by an Iranian friend once that if you dropped even one juicy seed from the pomegranate, it was bad luck. Obviously,while making this album, Mangum dropped none.
Posted by poppa john at 3:15 PM GMT 06/04/2010 Report Abuse
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Absolutely fantastic album. A true classic.
Posted by Mike at 12:13 PM GMT 07/04/2010 Report Abuse
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I bought this album on the day it was released in the UK and I'm always chuffed when I read the affection others hold for this masterpiece. One of the few albums I learned to play all the way through (not difficult) in my bad strumming style!!! Is it a shame it is a cult classic and not bought by millions...no not really!!!
Posted by Mike at 7:09 PM GMT 27/04/2010 Report Abuse
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One of my very favourite albums cruelly overlooked by the masses!!!
Posted by Akamiek at 11:23 AM GMT 12/06/2010 Report Abuse
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