"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea": Meme Album, or Genius Work of Art?

In my first ever video essay, I will dive into one of my favorite albums of all time, talk about what makes it unique, and how it rose to popularity.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Apparently Two Headed Boy is NOT in a minor key. Im an idiot disregard that

[@lordbeanoz9644]

smh you fell off BIG TIME.

[@macmccarter9921]

With relative keys you could claim a minor is a major if that’s how you hear it so… you’re basically a busy internet music nerd now…

[@wanderlngdays]

@@macmccarter9921no, you couldn’t. That song is in G major. To be in the relative minor it would have to have at least one E minor chord (the relative minor key), which it hasn’t

[@jankbunky4279]

Agreed Mr Jumbo. I love the album very much. It's got a great combination of simple compositions, fantastic performances, unique timbres, and crazy but evocative lyrics... genuinely captivating.

[@chefarmor3918]

“God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life” FUCK

[@monkeyjumbo48]

That's one of my favorite lyrics too

[@alicemursteinlesbefaen666]

its so weird having discovered neutral milk hotel through just listening to a lot of folk and folk rock to then see the way people online talk about them, in my head they're musically in the same boat as the mountain goats or nana grizol. same thing with ajj, which i discovered from just listening to a whole lot of folk punk, but ajj also gets lumped together with nmh as "4chan music snob bands" for some reason. and then there's other artists that i'd expect to get that sort of status, like will wood and the tapeworms, who instead became a sort of "fandom tiktok" band somehow. anyways, while i don't find nmh to be as genius as many others i still really love their music, and i'll probably appreciate this album a bit more next time i listen to it thanks to your video

[@monkeyjumbo48]

OMG glad to hear you enjoyed the video!! Is ajj that good? I have been meaning to check them out

[@alicemursteinlesbefaen666]

@@monkeyjumbo48 personally, i like 'em. their folk punky albums are not my favourite type of folk punk, and their more experimental albums are not my favourite type of experimental music. but the overall consistent quality and sincerity of their music has drawn me in again and again, and their albums all worth checking out honestly. the album everyone memes about is "people who eat people are the luckiest people in the world", and it's honestly a good album to start with. but my favourite album of theirs has to be "the bible 2". hope you like it! and also hope you make more video essays on albums cus this was entertaining!

[@monkeyjumbo48]

@@alicemursteinlesbefaen666 I have 3 more video essays in the works rn!

[@AlLeftyPenguino]

Holy shit! You did a wonderful job making this with nice editing and scripting ^^

[@monkeyjumbo48]

THANK U SO MUCH!!

[@DevP_105]

Solid video, can't wait to see more

[@IRDeady]

Musically you can say this album is simple (though I would disagree and just say it is very well crafted, to the point that it sounds simple and basic) but like pretty much every other piece of music that has had this level of impact, it is richly complex emotionally. That's what keeps people coming back to it. Emotionally ITAOTS is one of the most complex albums ever. It goes all over the place in that respect and there isn't a single second on the album that feels forced or inauthentic, to the point that pure stream of consciousness lyrics can communicate the feelings without making any logical sense.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

You are way better at articulating things than me, this is pretty much what I was trynna say

[@IRDeady]

@@monkeyjumbo48 eh, it takes practice. It's possible that since this is what your video made me think of, it kind of was what you said.

[@mikedayton8131]

I first heard of them from a tweet making fun of them but I actually really liked it. “Neutral milk hotel is like Bob Dylan for people whose Vietnam war is not having a girlfriend”

[@wadagascar]

If you love this album, there's a great music doc that came out a little while back about the niche that NMH and their contemporaries carved out in the 90s early 2000s indie called The Elephant Six Recording Co.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

I'll check it out!

[@jamessurnamepending1239]

You should do a review of their other album, I found that equally fascinating

[@GENOorGEN]

it's difficult having this as my favorite album, I listened to this from my dad, and only later found out its online significance. I know countless amounts of people who just wrote it off due to the awful website it's associated with, it's unfortunate.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Yeah for sure, its very annoying it has the reputation it does but at the same time that's how a lot of people discovered it (me included)

[@spacemanproletariat4279]

Nice video. You won’t stay on 28 subscribers with this quality of editing.

[@Bloopsan]

already on 29 !

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Thank u so much!!

[@christron5368]

I’ve never thought of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea as a meme album, no hate tho. This video is really good and super underrated, you should definitely make more videos similar to this!

[@cnvrgnt]

Both. Both is good. Also just an FYI, it’s Mangum, not Magnum. Took me a while to figure that out too

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Oh wow wtf I never knew that lmao

[@benc1180]

Enjoyed this! Oh comely is my fav song I the world,maybe next time talk about all tracks on the album? Such as the untitled track

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Thanks for the suggestion, in the review I'm making rn, I talk about every track

[@benc1180]

@@monkeyjumbo48 I’ll be there !

[@JannisSicker]

I think there's a lot of interesting avantgarde music on that label, Elephant 6. And they have some interesting dogmatic recording techniques. So maybe that's also what people associate this with!

[@wanderlngdays]

This album doesn’t have simple instrumentation. On the contrary, the contrast of lo-fi sound with the rich and lush instrumentation is, for me, one of the strengths of this album

[@H4GS]

Awesome video man. Earned a sub 🫡

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Appreciate it!!!

[@razok2125]

i discovered nmh by listening to folk punk and only later found out it's a bit of a meme. shoutout to my hs senior quote being from this album

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Love that. What was the quote?

[@Jaspertine]

say simple again, I dare you

[@monkeyjumbo48]

LMFAO

[@jumpinkim]

look at my boy mochal go!

Why is anything, anything?

[@lordbeanoz9644]

erm… this isnt friday night funkin…

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Essay about the future of fnf would actually be gas now that you mention it

[@KILLKRYPTOOfficial]

I never really "got" this album or the hype around. It sounds like if the Decemberists didn't try

[@explodingdukex4362]

I know this fella

[@Cabesandia]

genius work of art

[@NeecoNeeco]

Jeff's singing about falling in love with Anne Frank I thought.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

Yeah, this the most popular theory. In an interview talking about the album he talks about reading the Diary of Anne Frank and it having a profound effect on him and he like cried for days after reading it or something, so most people assume that's what it's about, but all of its still up for interpretation

[@zapotc]

The latter.

[@ajflop43xd64]

It's a video

[@draidog]

0:46 erm i think his name is jeff mangum 🤓

[@dave7592]

Meme due to the overzealous fans and music nerds. I dont care. I still like it.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

I'd say it's both overall

[@keithparker7412]

Eh, I’m more of a negative milk motel kinda guy

[@blueberrimuffin6682]

I get what people like about it, but all the songs just sounded like worse versions of songs I've already heard before with not that interesting instrumentation and a mildly annoying vocalist.

[@monkeyjumbo48]

That's a valid critique, I see where ur coming from

[@blueberrimuffin6682]

@@monkeyjumbo48 One of my friends said she'd give me $20 if I didn't like NMH. Someone is getting a nice bonus

[@jamessurnamepending1239]

That's a strange take to me. I found it incredibly original and just absolutely beautiful and bizzare

[@blueberrimuffin6682]

@@jamessurnamepending1239 That's your perogative, but I just didn't see any of it. I just don't get what was bizarre about it.

[@jamessurnamepending1239]

@@blueberrimuffin6682 i think that the intensity of the noise rock parts is what got me. plus, communist daughter is a 1 minute long poetic masterpiece with absolutely bizzare production