I started listening to this after ShoutCast (Yahoo owned Last.fm/Spotify/Pandora type thing) kept recommending it to me. It wasn't wrong in its suggestion. This was back in first year of university. It has become one of my most listened to albums since then.
There is a melancholy, dreamlike quality to it – which is lovely – but it is also highly sing-along-to-able. The memory I have attached to this is towards the end of my tenure living with thee David James Funnell and standing in his doorway singing along to it with him as he sat on his bed. He was probably meant to be tidying his room. As someone who is conscious of the fact he cannot sing, it is quite enjoyable to sing as loudly as you can in the presence of another person.
Lyrically speaking, this album is brilliant. Do I know what it is about? I think there is some stuff about Anne Frank in it, and I've read it is inspired by a dream the singer had but other than that, no. Not really. But the words are interesting and not obvious. If the album were a wine, and I was some cunt sniffing it, I might say that I smell sadness and love and loss and a hint of longing.
It is also one of those albums that makes a person like me (a talentless hack) want to learn the guitar to play along, because it sounds so good but it doesn't seem complex and the vocals are brilliant although they are strained and cracked and nasally. They (or he – Neutral Milk Hotel are, essentially one fellow) have become reclusive and future releases seem unlikely. There is something I like about that. They'd likely never better this.
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