Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Neutral Milk Hotel / In the Aeroplane Over the Sea / Rating 10.0

Seriously, what year is this?

This is still available as a domestic release via Merge in the U.S. of A (for 13$) and this PFM review is extraneous because the import doesn’t have bonus tracks or anything. This recent over seas re-release is more expensive but is apparently reason enough to flex a little review muscle 7 years after the fact with a perfect 10.

Are they just looking for an excuse to hype this band now that NMH’s name is being sited as a major influence to many a new popular band?

PFM also sites Neutral Milk Hotel in at least 1 review a week lately (most recently Wolf Parade) so it makes sense that they would jump at the chance to flaunt this classic yet still totally old piece of news.

They should just create a section like allmusicguide does where they pick an old band and place them on the front page of the site somewhere to (re)introduce a worthy older band / great older record to the masses.

Oh Pitchfork you silly predictable kid you.

Lastly I found this little quip on the UK Domino website:

Domino Recording Co are Proud to be releasing 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea' on Monday 5th September, a stunning record from the great Neutral Milk Hotel. Its relevance to today’s musicians is obvious from it’s fans; Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand recalls: “When I first started driving, ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ was the only cassette I had in my Ford Fiesta for two years. It is amazing. Friendships can be gauged on the mutual love of Neutral Milk Hotel.’ Dan Snaith of Caribou cites ‘Aeroplane…’ as “my favourite album ever recorded without exception”.

What did the world do before Franz Ferdinand started sighting relatively obscure bands in interviews??? ( Orange Juice anyone?) If I were a publicist I would consider hiring bands like Franz and Bloc Party for useless quotes of admiration because undoubtedly the press will eat it up and shit it out... I mean publish it.