On Avery Island

Description

Part of the Elephant 6 family (a collective of lo-fi indie bands from the nineties that included The Apples In Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control), Neutral Milk Hotel is the lo-fi brainchild of Louisiana-native Jeff Mangum. 1996s On Avery Island is an inscrutable concept album, a chronicle of an insular world told in a remarkably universal language. A fuzzy masterpiece of experimental lo-fi recording, the album wraps its ragged pop songs in ribbons of loops, marching-band squawks, and Casio noodling; the opener, Song Against Sex, is as much a manifesto as a kick-off, a self-propelled marvel hopped up on rapid-fire wordplay and a stunningly ramshackle melody punctuated by bloated trombone moans. Throughout the record, Jeff Mangums wheels threaten to fly off at any time his songs are cryptic and crazed, his ideas fast and furious, and together they force the home-recording concept out of the basement and into a brave new world.