Jonny Leather’s 25 Favorite Albums That I’ve Listened to This Year, based on My Own Personal Taste
When someone has the balls to make a list called "The Best of..." the results are always a very subjective cross-section of their own personal tastes. The best lists are always generated by consensus of a large collective of people well-informed about the subject they're ranking. Music is my oxygen. Without it I suffocate, so I listen to a lot of new music every year. That said, it's all restricted to my tastes, what I have access to/know about, and my moods. Like everyone, I have favorites and I'd like to spread the word about the records I love, but I won't dare call them the best records of the year. It amazes me how so many "Best of 2009" lists completely lack genres, as if to say that indie rock is the ultimate form of music. My favorite records of the year are a variety of rock records. Almost embarrassing that it lacks hip hop, jazz, classical, soul, and other genres, but rock is where I was with my head this year and this isn't a best of list, it's a completely subjective list of my favorite records—a list that probably wouldn't be exactly the same tomorrow.
-
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
It's gonna be almost everyone's choice for album of the year, and that makes me not want to make it #1, but the fact is that Animal Collective has made an uncompromisingly great record that should withstand the test of time and inspire musicians for many more years.
Best track: My Girls
-
Capybara - Try Brother
Why all of the music media missed this one is beyond me. Combining elements of Sufjan, Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors and many more, the refreshingly diverse Try Brother is easily the year's best debut record.
Best track: Cutaway Kid
-
Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
Beast Moans only hinted at what the combination of Krug, Bejar and Mercer would be capable when joined together as indie supergroup Swan Lake. As three of the most talented and unique songwriters in the world, they seem to mesh perfectly, and in the end it's Mercer who shines most brightly with a huge voice that sounds like a really crazy drunk Bowie.
Best track: Peace
-
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Phoenix are the best pop band of our time, and it's about time people realized it. "Love Like A Sunset pts 1 & 2" is the perfect centerpiece, pulling a 5:40 second instrumental before eclipsing into pure bliss.
Best track: Love Like A Sunset pt. 1 & 2
-
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
The fully realized masterpiece that Dave Longstreth has hinted at for years, thanks to some of the tightest harmonies ever caught on record.
Best track: Useful Chamber
-
Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
As if Black Mountain's To The Future wasn't great enough, Stephen McBean's other project outdid them.
Best track: Vampire
-
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
No one expected this. Just when Wayne Coyne and Flaming Lips had seemingly grown out of their extreme weirdness, they go and release their most bizarre record since becoming indie rock icons.
Best track: Evil
-
Deleted Scenes - Birdseed Shirt
Diverse, desperate, and genuine—Birdseed Shirt is a rock record with a soul and humanity, during a time where humanity gets lost behind effects or sounds forced.
Best track: Fake IDs
-
Hooray For Earth - Momo EP
Just a hint of what's to come, Hooray For Earth has worked out the ideas of their earlier releases and created their own unique sound that is able to combine loud and heavy with poppy and danceable.
Best track: Get Home
-
Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
A psychedelic headtrip unlike any I've ever heard before.
Best track: Ultimate Satisfaction
-
Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
All it takes is that opening riff to let you know that this is Built to Spill's best album in 10 years. It's a return to form for one of the indie rock's elite bands.
Best track: Aisle 13
-
Loxsly - Tomorrow's Fossils
If Flaming Lips got too weird for you, Loxsly may be able to fulfill the need for Soft Bulletin-era Lips. Not many bands can debut with a concept album. Fully developed at the starting line, Loxsly's not like many other bands.
Best track: As The Constellation's Arms Uncurled
-
The Veils - Sun Gangs
You feel every word that Finn Andrews sings, because he delivers them with the type of intensity that can rip your soul to shreds.
Best track: Sit Down By The Fire
-
Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Dream
Harlem Shakes first and most likely last full length is a fun, uplifting record about change.
Best track: TFO
-
The Antlers - Hospice
A big sweeping record filled with emotional despair.
Best track: Sylvia
-
The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
Sure, The Jesus & Mary Chain chain did it first, then Black Rebel Motorcycle Club picked up the torch, but A Brief History of Love is about as big and wonderful as anything either of those bands have released.
Best track: Velvet
-
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers - A Fish Hook An Open Eye
Shilpa Ray has quickly emerged as the best female vocalist in New York City with brutally honest lyrics that come from a much darker dirtier place than her peers.
Best track: What The Fuck Was I Thinking
-
Wild Beasts - Two Lovers
An album full of spinning webs of vocal theatrics.
Best track: This Is Our Lot
-
We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
Every second feels genuinely passionate and filled with immediacy.
Best track: It's Thunder and It's Lightning -
Foreign Born - Person to Person
A sophomore record that actually improves upon the debut in all the right ways.
Best track: Vacationing People
-
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
The 2nd of 2 Spencer Krug related albums to make this list just goes to show how prolific of a songwriter he's become.
Best track: Nightingale/December Song -
Dappled Cities - Zounds
Could be heard as the Australian brother of Wild Beasts.
Best track: The Night Is Young At Heart
-
Islands - Vapours
They ditched the strings for synths, and when doing so Nick Diamonds returned to a more upbeat place. It's the closest thing he's done to that now legendary Unicorns record.
Best track: EOL
-
Wye Oak - The Knot
With The Knot, Wye Oak filled out their stripped-down bass and guitar duo sound and let the guitar scream a bit louder.
Best track: Take It In
-
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names
After 6 overlooked gems, veteran songwriter John Vanderslice signed to Dead Oceans and released the rest record of his career.
Best track: Too Much Time
Honorable Mentions:
-
Loney, Dear - Dear John
Best track: I Was Only Going Out
-
DeVries - Death to God
Best track: What A Wasted Life
-
Kurt Vile - Childish Prodigy
Best track: Freak Train
-
Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
Best track: You Adult Friction
-
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below
Best track: Up From Below
-
Dan Deacon - Bromst
Best track: Snookered
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Best track: Skeletons
-
Marissa Nadler - Little Hells
Best track: Ghosts & Lovers
-
Mew - No more stories Are told today I'm sorry They washed away No
Best track: Repeaterbeater
Jonny Leather’s 100 Favorite Records of the Decade: 2000-2009
It's all arbitrary. Ask me again in a month and this list will be in totally different order, and a a few different records will be on the list. Actually, give me 5 minutes and this list would be different. This is just a list of my favorite records. I can't even imagine the procedure in ranking them as "best records of 2000s". I don't know if Kid A is the best record of the decade or how anyone would be able to measure something so subjective, but I know that I like Kid A better than any other record of the decade. I would love for publications such as Pitchfork, NME, and Paste to really elaborate on their processes in measuring the rankings of their year-end and decade-end lists, because to say something is the greatest album of an entire decade is a pretty huge honor. In other fields it's a bit less subjective to measure greatness. For example, Michael Jordan is considered the greatest basketball player ever based on his superior stats and the awards and championships he won, but it's not that easy with music. Ranking music is like ranking food. We all have different tastes, and there are a lot of different categories that are tough to judge against each other. Sure, we all know Nickelback sucks and some burgers taste like hockey pucks, but how do we decide if one incredibly succulent steak is better than another? We can't really.
Jonny Leather's 100 Favorite Records of 2000-2009:
- Radiohead - Kid A
- The Avalanches - Since I Left You
- Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
- The Walkmen - Bows & Arrows
- Phoenix - It's Never Been Like That
- The Arcade Fire - Funeral
- The Strokes - Is This It?
- Radiohead - In Rainbows
- Beulah - Yoko
- The Walkmen - You & Me
- The Wrens - Meadowlands
- Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
- Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
- Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Spiritualized - Songs in A&E
- Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
- Liars - Drum's Not Dead
- Fugazi - The Arguement
- Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
- Blonde Redhead - Misery is a Butterfly
- Panda Bear - Person Pitch
- The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
- The National - Alligator
- Pulp - We Love Life
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl
- Blur - Think Tank
- The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
- Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
- At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command
- Radiohead - Amnesiac
- Sigur Ros - Takk
- Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
- Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
- The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
- Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
- Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
- The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
- Wilco - A Ghost is Born
- Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming
- The Dears - Gang of Losers
- Explosions in the Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
- Blonde Redhead - Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons
- The Veils - Nux Vomica
- The Libertines - Up The Bracket
- Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
- Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
- Nada Surf - Let Go
- Spiritualized - Let It Come Down
- Elliot Smith - Figure 8
- ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
- Shellac - 1000 Hurts
- Tomahawk - Tomahawk
- The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
- Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
- The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
- The Microphones - Mount Eerie
- The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
- Animal Collective - Feels
- Spoon - Gimme Fiction
- Bjork - Vespertine
- Motel Motel - New Denver
- Capybara - Try Brother
- Elbow - Cast of Thousands
- Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
- Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
- Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
- Walking Bicycles - GO
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
- Hooray For Earth - Momo EP
- Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
- The Dears - No Cities Left
- The Veils - The Runaway Found
- TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
- Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
- Flaming Lips - Embryonic
- Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
- Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
- The Faint - Danse Macabre
- Hot Chip - The Warning
- The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
- Clinic - Internal Wrangler
- Man Man - Six Demon Bag
- Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice
- The Microphones - The Glow pt 2
- Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
- The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
- Belle & Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
- Secret Machines - Ten Silver Drops
- Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
- The Joggers - Solid Gold
- Liars - Liars
- Black Mountain - In The Future
- French Kicks- The Trial of the Century
- Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone
- Deerhunter - Microcastle
- Built to Spill - There is No Enemy
- Destroyer - Rubies
- Beck - Sea Change
- Xiu Xiu - Women as Lovers
Critical Differences: Pitchfork’s “Best New Music”
mp3: Deleted Scenes - "Fake IDs"
mp3: Julianna Barwick - "Choose"
Usually my "Critical Differences" feature takes a look at clashing reviews of the same record by multiple publications, but after reading Pitchfork's glowing review of Julianna Barwick's beautiful debut ep today, I decided to take a bit of a different approach.
Everyone in the music industry knows what a juggernaut Pitchfork has become. There's been a backlash, but the fact remains that if you're an unknown band and Pitchfork loves your record, there's a really good chance your entire future will change as a band. When Pitchfork drops that little "Best New Music" label on an album it usually blows up. Recent recipients like Bear in Heaven, Real Estate, The Antlers and Girls have seen massive changes in the attention their getting from fans, labels, venues and other publications. One minute they're struggling to draw a crowd, dragging out their friends to see them, and the next minute everyone is begging to get listed and they're selling out venues 5 times the size in cities far from home.
Many would agree that Pitchfork's "Best New Music" label has been the key element in making indie stars out of Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, TV on the Radio, Animal Collective and many more of the elite bands of the indie world.
And with that power to giveth, they can also taketh away. And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead once received the ultimate honor with a 10.0 score for 2002's Source Tags and Codes, which shot them up the ranks of the indie music world. Only a few years later, follow-up Worlds Apart was trashed, receiving a 4.0. The next record So Divided was treated just as poorly. And while the negative Pitchfork reviews didn't send them back to playing 100 capacity clubs in front of 5 people, it did do quite a bit of damage to the size of their fan base and how other publications, blogs, and venues treated them.
But this isn't really about the effect of Pitchfork's "Best New Music" label, it's about Pitchfork's decisions for what records actually get tagged as "Best New Music" in relation to the scores they receive.
I used to assume that if a record were to receive a certain score or higher, that would delegate the "Best New Music" label. For example, all records that have been labeled "Best New Music" have received an 8.0 or higher.
When Pitchfork gave Deleted Scenes' excellent Birdseed Shirt an 8.0 early this year and it didn't get the "Best New Music" tag, I assumed that they must have been just below the score needed. A tough break for a great band that's still struggling to develop a larger fan base, but I didn't look much into it.
Today, Pitchfork praised Julianna Barwick's Florine and handed it an 8.2, but once again no "Best New Music" label. I felt there had definitely been other records this year with 8.2's that Pitchfork gave its special stamp of approval, and after a quick look through the archives my suspicions were confirmed.
In 2009, the following records have been given the "Best New Music" stamp of approval:
Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind EP 8.9
Real Estate - Real Estate 8.5
Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth 8.4
Various Artists - 5: Five Years of Hyperdub 8.2
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport 9.0
Atlas Sound - Logos 8.2
Mountain Goats - Life Of The World to Come 8.4
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms 8.6
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic 9.0
The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa 8.6
The Memory Tapes - Seek Magic 8.3
Girls - Album 9.1
Volcano Choir - Unmap 8.3
Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II 8.8
Wild Beasts - Two Dancers 8.4
The xx - The xx 8.7
YACHT - See Mystery Lights 8.5
The Antlers - Hospice 8.5
Delorean - Ayrton Senna EP 8.4
jj - jj n° 2 8.6
Cass McCombs - Catacombs 8.2
Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue 8.3
Sunset Rubdown -Dragonslayer 8.3
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm 8.5
Mos Def - The Ecstatic 8.0
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca 9.2
Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions 8.5
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 8.5
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 9.0
Isis - Wavering Radiant 8.5
St. Vincent - Actor 8.5
Japandroids - Post-Nothing 8.3
Woods - Songs of Shame 8.3
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career 8.3
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle 8.1
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns 8.5
Fever Ray - Fever Ray 8.1
Dan Deacon - Bromst 8.5
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains 8.3
Wavves - Wavvves 8.1
Various Artists - Dark Was the Night 8.6
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart 8.4
Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light 8.6
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 9.6
So, based on these findings, Julianna Barwick's record should definitely be considered "Best New Music" as its' score ranks higher than albums by Wavves, Mos Def, Fever Ray, and Bill Callahan. Deleted Scenes' Birdseed Shirt is a borderline case ranking only even with Mos Def, but since scores should mean something, anything 8.0 or higher should be labeled "Best New Music." If not, then Pitchfork is essentially stating that the scores they give albums are meaningless. It's pretty simple logic.
Birdseed Shirt and Florine are not the only records that have seemingly scores that should guarantee the "Best New Music" tag, but finding more examples will take forever because finding 8.0 or higher records in their archives is far harder than finding albums considered "Best New Music." This is exactly why it's important. If readers missed the reviews of these 2 records on the days they were posted, there's a good chance that they'll never see them, but when an album gets tagged as "Best New Music" it lives on the front page for a while (homepage displays 3 most recent Best New Music albums). And when it's gone from the homepage it can still be found rather easily in the special Best New Music archive.
Pitchfork should correct their mistake and place all records 8.0 or higher in Best New Music to fix their very clear problems of consistency.
Critical Differences: Twilight Sad - “Forget The Night Ahead”
Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
mp3: Twilight Sad - "The Room"
Forget the Night Ahead is an album I was initially vary excited about prior to its release. Twilight Sad's debut record was one of the best debuts I've heard in recent years, and I expected their sophomore record to be a peak into the future of them as a band. Upon first listen, the much noisier Forget the Night Ahead was a real disappointment. And while some of the songs have grown on me over time, I still remain torn about how I feel about the record. critics have generally shown the same feelings of uncertainty.
Spin
Review by David Peisner, October 19, 2009
Rating: 2.5/5
Read Full Review
Key Remarks:
But the quartet spend most of their follow-up in hiding. Their crashing, shimmering walls of guitar are now simply a persistent, feedback-drenched drone, obscuring any sense of melody or dynamics.
The always-twee lyrics (sample line: "You are the bearer of a womb without love") have become stubbornly obtuse.
Moments of transcendence occasionally emerge from the murk, but not often enough.
The Onion AV Club
Review by Noel Murray September 29, 2009
Rating: B+
Read Full Review
Key Remarks:
And yet beneath the squall, frontman James Graham is still busy exploring memories and the moods they evoke, in a distinctive singsong voice.
Forget The Night Ahead is less immediately appealing than The Twilight Sad’s debut album Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters; the songs are noisier and more monotonous
But the Forget tracks “I Became A Prostitute,” “Seven Years Of Letters,” and “The Neighbours Can’t Breathe” show a band capable of muscling up without losing a fascination with fragile, fleeting moments.
Conclusion: Both reviewers find the record less immediately appeal. Noel Murray seems to be okay with the noisier and more monotonous qualities that reflect the band's influence of spending time on the road with Mogwai. The reviews are really not all that different beyond the scores, and it seems to reflect that both reviewers are hearing the same things, and it's simply a difference in tastes the lead to the different scores.
Critical Differences: Nada Surf - “Let Go”
mp3: Nada Surf - "Inside of Love"
Pitchfork's Rob Mitchum and Entertainment Weekly's Brian M. Raftery had very different opinions of Nada Surf's now indie classic record Let Go when it first came out...
Pitchfork
Review by Rob Mitchum, January 22, 2003
Rating: 3.8/10
Read Full Review
Key Remarks:
Like the equally mystifying continued existence of their pan-flash peers Superdrag (sigh, WhosuckedouttheFEEEELAAAAAANNNNN!!), Nada Surf insists upon fading away rather than burning out.
Could it be there's something worthwhile about this band to have so long outlived their original fifteen minutes?" Well, that's why I get paid the big bucks, folks-- to tell all y'all not to listen to that bastardly little voice, who never did you no good anyhow.
Let Go's only plausible use is to forcibly expose us to mid-90s alt-rock in the context of today so that we might come to grips with just how damn crappy it sounds. Of course, the very same effect can be achieved by simply dusting off that Buffalo Tom CD the record store's passed on sixty or seventy times and tossing it into the old six-disc-- a rather sad fact for the boys of Nada Surf, and proof positive of this album's dollar-bin destiny.
...Nada Surf embodies all the itinerant influences of the day, drawing their jangle-pop inspiration from...but the band also carries with it the era's failings like a parasite, crimes that might've been forgivable back when we were sorta excited about 'Mats disciples popping up on the radio, but which come off as JUST SAD nowadays.
Said crimes include:
Building a chorus around the phrase, "I wanna know what it's like/ On the inside of love," in the at-least-aptly-titled "Inside of Love".
Hijacking a classic album's mystique in lieu of creating one's own poetic imagery, as with the protagonist listening to Blonde on Blonde in the again-credibly-titled "Blonde on Blonde".
Just the simple presence of a song called "Neither Heaven Nor Space" (and guess what it's about?).
Singing a song entirely in French ("Le Pour Ca")
Too bad these, and the other ten mid-tempo tunes on Let Go, are gleefully shined into harmless linoleum by the mixing board of Bryce "SuperSheen" Goggin, the only man who can lay claim to ruining albums by both Pavement and Phish.
Perhaps the only thing I can't give Nada Surf the old kick-while-down for is the rather unfortunate sharing of album titles with teen-of-the-moment Avril Lavigne-- and that's only 'cause I haven't got it in me to waste further time smacking down these clearly well-meaning saps. I'll admit, though: If forced to defend one of the two LPs to save my life, I'd pick Little Miss Wifebeater without a second thought. No, I'm afraid Nada Surf won't be regaining any of their past (hyuck, hyuck) Popularity on these shores with Let Go, and their fellow forgotten (Dig, anyone?) might want to heed their warning and stay retired.
Conclusion: Ouch! Rob Mitchum didn't just dislike Nada Surf's Let Go. He hated it with a true passion, and did his best in attempt to bury it forever. He criticized them for using Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" for imgaery, and he criticized them for singing a song in French. Would he have done so if he had liked the sound? Hard to say. Mitchum clearly wanted to be listening to something with more balls, but that's not what Nada Surf is about. He continues to focus on Nada Surf's one hit wonder popularity as though they did something wrong by releasing another record.
Mitchum will probably never like this record, and you can't blame him for having different taste, but he was really wrong about one thing: "Nada Surf won't be regaining any of their past (hyuck, hyuck) Popularity on these shores with Let Go." The album became a treasure in the indie community and Nada Surf became bigger than ever, with large headlining tours and a growing fanbase.
Entertainment Weekly
Conclusion: Brian M. Raftery's much briefer review for Entertainment Weekly couldn't be more different than Mitchum's slam of the album. Raftery, much like Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield [see his review here], treats their fluke hit as a hurdle that the band triumphantly overcame, rather than the inescapable past that Mitchum treats it as.
The one and only positive thing that both critics agreed upon is that "Blizzard of '77" is a great album opener.
I personally love Let Go, and believe that anyone who's ever seen the band perform live would agree that "Inside of Love" is a transcendent experience.
Critical Differences: Neutral Milk Hotel - “In The Aeroplane Over the Sea”
"Critical Differences" is a new feature on jonnyleather.com examining clashing album reviews written by music critics with the power to make or break an artist/album. For my first ever attempt at this column I decided to look at Neutral Milk Hotel's "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea." It's an album that personally grew on me to become one of my all-time favorites, and is also an album that was difficult for critics to assess early on.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea
mp3: Neutral Milk Hotel - "King Of Carrot Flowers Part 2 & 3"
Now a little over 10 years since it's release, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is widely regarded as a masterpiece. Very few albums in its genre have had as large of an influence over what followed. Rolling Stone and Pitchfork had pretty dissimilar feelings about the record upon it's release...
Rolling Stone
1998
Ben Ratliff
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Key Remarks:
"Jeff Mangum, who goes by the name of Neutral Milk Hotel with or without musical collaborators, was one of those seventies kids touched by Brian Wilson and Lindsey Buckingham. Unfortunately, Mangum went straight for the advanced course in aura and texture, skipping basic training in form and selfediting."
"The lyrics on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, his second album, are fertile, heaping, onrushing; most of the music is scant and drab, with flat-footed rhythms and chord changes strictly out of the beginner's folk songbook. Elsewhere, in "The King of Carrot Flowers Parts Two and Three," the clattering drums, trombones and impasto of underwater guitar fuzz mask the absence of a decent melody."
"He sings loudly, straining the limits of an affectless voice"
"For those not completely sold on its folk charm, Aeroplane is thin-blooded, woolgathering stuff."
Conclusion: Rolling Stone's Ben Ratliff's review actually reads as being more negative than the 3 out of 5 star tag connected with it, completely ripping apart Mangum's songwriting and criticizing his vocals. It's hard not to cringe reading such a scathing review of a classic record.
Pitchfork
1998
M. Christian McDermott
Rating: 8.7
Key Remarks:
"there's one psych-rock band making music that's just as catchy as it is frightening."
"From the opening "King of Carrot Flowers," In the Aeroplane Over the Sea shifts from acoustic folkiness to loud, fast punk rock with little or no warning. It features a noisy horn section and a dreamy singin' saw, all rolled into a package that does a credible job of blending Sgt. Pepper with early 90's lo-fi."
"Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Magnum writes songs that read like bad dreams. He inherits a world of cannibalism, elastic sexuality and freaks of nature. We can only assume he likes it there."
Conclusion: The 8.7 is a very positive score for Pitchfork, and though McDermott's review does more to describe the feeling of the record than his own personal feelings about it, you get the impression that he thinks very highly of it.
7 years and a reissue later Pitchfork wrote a second review of the record, giving it the highest honor, a 10.0...
Pitchfork
2005
Mark Richardson
Rating: 10.0
Key Remarks:
"Moments of trauma, joy, shame-- here they're all experienced first as physical sensation. A flash of awkward intimacy is recalled as "now how I remember you/ how I would push my fingers through your mouth/ to make those muscles move.""
"Obsessed as it is with the textures of the flesh and the physical self as an emotional antenna, listening to Aeroplane sometimes seems to involve more than just your ears."
"The instrumentation seems plucked randomly from different years in the 20th century: singing saws, Salvation Army horn arrangements, banjo, accordion, pipes."
"Aeroplane is what happens when you have that knowledge and still take the risk."
Conclusion: Having already reviewed the record quite positively, I don't really see the necessity for Pitchfork to have done a 2nd review of the record. This one is longer and more in-depth, but in the end says nothing really to add upon the original review outside of letting us know what we already grew to know—that it's now a classic record—and to fil us in on the conection to the Diary of Ann Frank.
