‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ – Neutral Milk Hotel, 1998
Another band that I have to get into, after being told by a few people that their 1998 album of the same name as this song is the most underrated album of the ’90s. I’m writing this “blind” (i.e. without an internet connection) so, instead of going into a brief biography of the band (I know nothing about them) I’ll just go on feel.
In a lot of ways, this song isn’t really my type of thing. The nasal American post-grunge voice doesn’t do a lot for me – but, like Death Cab for Cutie, the music surmounts this obstacle. Also, some of the lyrics veer towards the Coldplay school of self-help, but they also fit the feel of the song perfectly. Hard not to have a grin listening to this song, and to feel alive.
The acoustic guitar goes for it from the start, as if it’s got some very important message to impart and needs to get it done before it forgets. There’s very little subtlety to it. The second chord is surely an E minor, my favourite guitar chord of them all). E minor always feels like plumbing the depths of the soul, but the message here is: youth is mighty. And I mean “mighty” in the Irish sense of the word. As in, great.
“And one day we will die and our ashes will fly
from the aeroplane over the sea,
But for now we are young let us lay in the sun
and count every beautiful thing that we see.”
The mid-section has a lovely, longing trombone solo, almost bursting with quiet contentedness. The only other instrumentation in this sparsely beautiful composition is a ghostly theremin-like sound, adding layers of knowing tragedy to the essentially upbeat lyrics.
Here’s a link to the song with a nice video. If you like it, check out the rest of the album, which is what I’m doing right now.
