Album Rating: 4.5
With all the glowing five-star reviews I've read, and with so many people telling me this album was the new barometer of musical genius, I had to buy it. I have listened to this album many, many times, and it always leaves me perplexed. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” to me, is hopelessly mediocre, infantile, poorly recorded, poorly performed, and not at all worth the hype it has received on this website. Anyone who believes this album is “genius,” or “innovative” should pick up Webster's dictionary, look up the meaning of those words, and ask themselves if they really describe this album accurately. Many have pointed out the significance of the album's recurring theme of Anne Frank as if it were some brilliant stroke of lyrical mastery. I'm sorry, but most of us read the Diary of Anne Frank in the sixth grade, and the fact that Jeff Mangum is obsessed with it now only proves his childish intellect. His voice is, in a word, abysmal. His supporting players are likewise out-of-tune, out-of-time, grasping for ideas from their limited palette. As for Ms. Frank, nothing new is learned; Mangum leaves only fragmented questions, and no new insight. Of course, fans of the band tell me I just don't get it, that it's so emotional, that it makes them cry. Yet they can't say why it affects them so. As for Neutral Milk Hotel (and the majority of the Elephant Six Collective), I can only say that they've broken no new ground, have no talent, and seem quite content to fool you with the dubious aesthetics of their lo-fi world. With approval from the potheads at CMJ, and the Michael Stipe Seal Of Approval, Neutral Milk Hotel and bands of their ilk, will continue to pump out what is the most overrated dross I think I've ever heard.
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