Neutral Milk Hotel’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” - Molly Litvak

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Amidst the unprecedented upheaval of 2020, Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is suddenly and startlingly relevant. It tells the beautiful story of a young couple in love during a Holocaust-like dystopia. 

Inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank and written by Jeff Mangum, the lead singer of the band, the album contains 11 songs that follow one another in a continuous track. In other words, you’re never really sure when one song ends and another begins. That being said, each song is uniquely crafted with different musical elements and lyrics. Unlike other songs that are solely meant for entertainment, listening to the songs on this album is like being immersed in another world.

In the first song of the album, “The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1,” Mangum sings, “And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy's shoulder/ And dad would throw the garbage all across the floor/ As we would lay and learn what each other's bodies were for.” In developing a contrast between the children and their parents, Mangum illustrates a central theme of the album: the everlasting power of love amidst chaos.

Of course, the chaos the album alludes to is entirely different from the chaos we face today. Nonetheless, there are parallels to be made between Mangum’s vision and present-day America, where we experience both upheaval and extreme distress. 

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 shut down the country in a manner that was unimaginable in 2019. George Floyd’s murder led to protests, riots, and vexation all around. Listening to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a different experience now than it was listening to it just years, or even months ago. In essence, the album is a culmination of various places and visions that could have only been imagined by the protagonists, with an almost “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” undertone. Imagining the modern world through this perspective can be quite interesting, as if seeing the current upheaval through a new and romanticized lens. 

In “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” the third song and title track, Mangum depicts a boy remembering his long lost love, who had perhaps been killed in the Holocaust. Despite everything that had happened, the boy still chooses to reminisce and imagine being in love again. Drawing inspiration from The Diary of Anne Frank, Mangum writes, “Anna's ghost all around/ Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me/ Soft and sweet.” 

“Two Headed Boy” reveals that our protagonist has one head in the present and one head in the past. While remembering his lover, he says, “We will take off our clothes/ And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine.” While acknowledging his present reality, he says, “Now your eyes ain't moving/ Now they just lay there in their climb.” 

“Oh Comely,” the longest song on the album, is also perhaps the most perplexing. Moving aside from purely focusing on the great love between the two protagonists, Mangum writes, “Your father made fetuses with flesh licking ladies/ While you and your mother were asleep in the trailer park.” By comparing a father’s sexual desires to his own family’s hardships, Mangum is again playing on that contrast between love and devastation. 

Someone once asked Jeff Mangum if a line in “Oh Comely” was referring to Anne Frank, to which Mangum replied, “it could mean that if you want it to.” This response demonstrates how the best art is meant to be interpreted differently by everyone. Though Mangum has yet to explain his lyrics, perhaps it’s for the better. If the lyrics were crystal clear and there was no room for analysis, I am certain this album would not have come to be regarded as a masterpiece. 

Although the album did not have immediate success, with time it became a legend, selling over 393,000 copies worldwide. Unfortunately the band dissolved in 1999, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was the last album they ever made.

The last song on the album, “Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2,” ends with the line “don't hate her when she gets up to leave.” Following this, you can hear Jeff get up, put down his guitar, and walk out. Perhaps the band crafted this line as a final goodbye, or maybe Mangum wrote it in reference to a boy who never stopped hating his lover for dying. I think it’s both. 

Though the album is largely influenced by the Holocaust, it’s interpretive factor allows it to be constantly relevant, whether that be in 2020 or in 20 years. And although I can’t personally relate to the characters in the album, I can certainly find meaning from their story, whether that be understanding the great tragedy of death, or the everlasting power of love.