So here's a little story about my day:
I went downtown to check up on some resumes and continue looking for work at any small boutique that would take me. I started at the Attic, which is an awesome second hand shop that I've purchased many a sweet find at, like these sunglasses:
Anyway, I knew I couldn't get a job there because apparently they won't hire you unless you can work for a year (and I'll be back in Indiana come August, so that wouldn't work), but I figured I'd go in just to see if I could stumble upon some awesome vintage jewelry or plaid shirts. When I walked in, I noticed right away that they were playing Neutral Milk Hotel's
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea [album, not song] on repeat. There were two sales associates, discussing the one's recent visit to another Attic store in Buffalo. One of them had short red hair, and a nose ring. The other was wearing an oversized cardigan. The one with the nose ring said they asked her about her shopping habits, and she told them she goes to thrift stores often. She then said that she noticed that they had products from J.Crew and that she was appalled that they were selling something "so mainstream." [I'd like to insert here that this made me laugh because I bought a pair of chucks there, and a shirt that originally came from the Gap.] The two sales associates then proceeded to discuss which Attic stores were the most "hipster." At this point I was near the cash register, and I said, "you know, I wrote a thesis paper on the sacred elements of this album (pointing to the invisible muzak in the sky)." [if you're bored enough to read it, I placed it at the end of this post.] The girl replied "Oh mah gawd, I love this album, I have it on vinyl." With a sarcastic, ironic tone, I interjected, "Oh man I know it's like a million times better on vinyl." (Which is actually somewhat true, I just felt like being an a-hole.) She apparently didn't catch the sarcasm in my voice, and said "yeah, that's why I bought it. I listen to it all. the. time. love it."
I had to leave the store at this point because she was being so obnoxiously stereotypical, I almost laughed in her face.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Jeff Mangum. Of course, I did before it was cool, but only because Alex Dettwyler introduced me to them.
Hipsters. Oh boy.
And another thing. There's this boutique (who's name I won't mention for the sake of being nice) that said I could intern there this summer as long as I sent my resume to them. I did so twice. Not only did they lose/forget about my email and never respond, they just hired some random guy from Lehigh. So when they said that I couldn't work for them as promised, I was a little upset. So I spent the rest of the afternoon going to other boutiques and introducing myself as a fashion student who loved working in small stores and that
Sophistikate screwed me over. Seriously. A simple jersey dress for $250+? No wonder your store is always empty, jerks.
I would like to interject here that everyone else I talked to in downtown Bethlehem today was very nice. Please support local businesses. They're awesome.
Anyway, I'm happy to announce that I'll be working as a designers assistant again, knee deep in fabric catalogs and bliss. And possibly some visual merchandising too.
As promised, that dang paper (In Helvetica, just to be a jerk):
“God is a Place Where Some Holy Spectacle Lies, God is a Place You Will Wait for The Rest of Your Lives.”
In February 1998, the band Neutral Milk Hotel released their last album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Jeff Mangum, the lead vocalist of this neo-psychedelic rock band, is rumored to have written this album about Anne Frank, after having reoccurring dreams about a family during the Holocaust. Some people believe that this album tells the story of Anne Frank’s birth, death, and re-birth; however, it is difficult to definitively discern what Mangum’s lyrics are about, as they are mysterious and cryptic. Despite this, with references including dates during World War II, white roses (the White Rose was a group in Germany that opposed the Nazi party) and a girl named Anne that was “buried alive with 500 families”; it seems without a doubt that this album was about the Holocaust. The music in this album can be described as simple and dreamy, yet slightly deranged. While I originally considered this album to be a totally secular piece of 90’s pop culture, the music and lyrics of In The Aeroplane Over the Sea are loaded with references to Jeff Mangum’s thoughts on the sacred. Neutral Milk Hotel uses references to the sacred in order to present this supernatural idea of being in love with a girl that has been dead fifty years prior to his birth.
After watching videos of Neutral Milk Hotel touring in support of their last album, one soon sees that Jeff Mangum fits the stereotype of the “disturbed lead singer” quite well (“Brandon”). Similar to Kurt Cobain or Robert Smith, he had a stage presence that was slightly awkward; he was pale, wearing over-sized sweaters, and in desperate need of a haircut. Despite this similarity, the music of Neutral Milk Hotel cannot be compared to Nirvana or the Cure; it goes beyond traditional aspects of rock music and has a sound all its own that can best be described as mystical. Also, the emotion that Mangum has in his voice as he sings leads the audience to believe he is practically preaching his beliefs in his songs.
One blogger writes “If Pop music is a circus, then Jeff Mangum is surely the tarot card reader, mystifying at every turn, speaking in what seem like acid-damaged riddles” (Raz). Several blogs discuss the mystery that surrounds this band (and particularly, this album.) Interestingly, after this album was released and Neutral Milk Hotel started to become popular, Jeff Mangum was less and less interested in the band. Just like the music on In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, the band’s end was mysterious. They disappeared, with no promise of return, but also no promise of being forever over. Speculations have been made, but no one is entirely sure what happened to the band other than the members themselves (Griffis). The mysterious quality of Neutral Milk Hotel can be correlated with the mysterious aspects of the sacred, in that they leave us wondering what to believe about existence.
There is a quality to the music in this album that I have not been able to find in any other kind of music. While the guitar progressions are rather simple, the other instrumentation (including static, musical saws, uilleann pipes, etc.) seems randomly thrown together to create a dreamy, eerie sound. The use of the trumpet and bagpipes throughout this album give what could have been just another indie-folk-rock album a sound reminiscent of a funeral dirge, which could remind the singer of sacred rituals for dealing with the loss of those that have passed away.
In the Aeroplane Over The Sea has been one of my favorite albums since I discovered it, but every time I listen to it, I find something new about it that makes me enjoy it even more. This was the album I would put one while being contemplative, but also when I just needed some background noise. Originally, I was not entirely thrilled with the lyrics I did not quite understand. However, if my interpretations are correct, the story told by Neutral Milk Hotel is beautiful, albeit bizarre.
After reading the lyrics of the songs in the album, I think Jeff Mangum is telling the story of how he is in love with Anne Frank, but he feels trapped because she has been dead for over 50 years. He sings about how he wishes he could save her in a time machine. Later, he talks about her being reborn, and how he wants to find her. The way the album was produced leads me to believe that this album is meant to tell a story, since the sounds of one track carry on to the next. To fully understand the meaning of the album, I analyzed the lyrics and instrumentation of each song, each tells a different part of the story of Jeff’s rumored love for Anne Frank.
The album opens up with a potentially cheery folk song called “The King of Carrot Flowers, Part 1.” It opens the story of two lovers, one dealing with discouraged parents. We do not sense any sacred references until the next track, “The King of Carrot Flowers (parts two and three.)” The beginning of this song sounds similar to a church hymn, with organ undertones and lyrics such as “I love you, Jesus Christ” and “And all awaits/ the day we are awaiting.” Then the distorted guitar comes in, and the listener is reminded that they are listening to a rock album. In “Part three,” Mangum references “finding himself,” between the cryptic lyrics.
The next song is the title track, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.” This is when the first references to Anne Frank appear. The song starts with “What a beautiful face/I have found in this place/That is circling all round the sun/What a beautiful dream/That could flash on the screen/In a blink of an eye and be gone from me.” This is the verse where Mangum explains that Anne, with her beautiful face, has come to him in a dream. However, it does not become apparent that he is talking about Anne until later in the song: “There are lights in the clouds/Anna's ghost all around/Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me/Soft and sweet.” Jeff Mangum references the sacred in the last verse when he sings, “And when we meet on a cloud/I'll be laughing out loud/I'll be laughing with everyone I see/Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all.” This verse references a heaven, as he’s laughing on a cloud, but it was the last lyric that really brings in the sacred. By saying “I can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all,” Mangum is questioning and exploring the idea of existence, which is a major part of why humans have the idea of “the sacred.” As the album continues, Jeff uses more traditional Western references to what is sacred to convey his message.
The next song is called “Two-Headed Boy.” This song starts with, “Two-Headed boy/All floating in glass/The sun it is past/Now it's blacker than black/I can hear as you tap on your jar.” I interpreted these lyrics to mean that when the sun goes down, and this boy goes to sleep, he feels trapped in a jar. In other words, Jeff Mangum feels that as he dreams of Anne, he feels trapped in this realm of existence because he knows he can’t be with her. The song continues to describe what I assume to be a dream about being with his lover. The last verse tells the two-headed boy not to grieve, because if he waits he can be with her. This idea is similar to the Western ideas of “the sacred”; in that when someone loses a loved one, they are comforted by the idea that someday they will meet them again in the afterlife. The following song, “The Fool,” is a two-minute instrumental piece that seems to be a continuation of “Two-headed Boy.” The song is a waltz, and features the accordion and trumpet. It has a very turn-of-the-century feel to it, sounding dissonant and nostalgic.
The next song, “Holland, 1945,” has the most upbeat sound to it of all of the album’s tracks. The first verse begins with, “The only girl I've ever loved/Was born with roses in her eyes/But then they buried her alive/One evening, 1945”. Again, Jeff Mangum is referencing Anne’s death, and how he loves her. (There are a few recurrent references to white roses/“roses in their eyes,” which I believe refers to the anti-Nazi group in World War II, the White Rose.) The song goes on, however, to say that “Now she’s a little boy in Spain/Playing pianos filled with flames,” which alludes to the rebirth of Anne Frank. Another verse in the song says, “Says it was good to be alive/But now he rides a comet's flame/And won't be coming back again/The Earth looks better from a star/That's right above from where you are/[…] The world just screams and falls apart.” This verse is talking about how the world looks better from above (alluding to heaven.) Perhaps Mangum believed that the world was indeed falling apart around him and he was looking forward to the day that he could transcend to heaven.
In the song, “Oh, Comely,” Jeff Mangum sings “And I know they buried her body with others/Her sister and mother and five-hundred families/And will she remember me fifty years later?/I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine.” This verse is where Mangum says he wishes he could save Anne. This song, I think, is more about how music itself is sacred. He refers to song as “meaningful, magical” in the verse, “The music and medicine you needed for comforting/So make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving/And pluck all your silly strings, bend all your notes for me/Soft silly music is meaningful magical/The movements were beautiful.” Some religions use the sacred as a tool to heal. The sacred, in many cases, can be considered meaningful and magical (or mystical.)
The next song is titled “Ghost.” This song is about how the ghost of Anne will always be alive within Mangum. Many believe this song is about the spirit transcending from the body, with the last verse being, “…A girl fell from the sky/From the top of a burning apartment building/Fourteen stories high/And when her spirit left her body/How it split the sun/I know that she will live forever/All goes on and on and on and/She goes and now she knows she'll never be afraid.” This verse references many sacred ideas, mainly the transcendence of the soul. The song right after this (which is untitled) is instrumental. It has aspects that would make you think of a funeral dirge, with bagpipes and vocal instrumentation that sounds like a church choir. The song ends with dissonant chords and static noises, which gave it that dream-like quality.
The last song on the album is “Two-Headed Boy, Part Two.” This song, in my opinion, has some of the most beautiful lyrics on the album. One verse sings, “And in my dreams you're alive and you're crying/As your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet.” Here Mangum is, again, referring to dreaming of Anne Frank and loving her. In this song, Mangum sings, “And when we break we'll wait for our miracle/God is a place where some holy spectacle lies/And when we break we'll wait for our miracle/God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life.” This verse shows how Mangum views the sacred. He sees God as a place rather than a being. He sees God as a place that is timeless, where he can be with the girl of his dreams, regardless of when she existed on Earth. Therefore, he sees God as the place he will wait for until he dies. The last line of the song is “But don’t hate her when she gets up to leave.” This line is a little confusing and leaves the story unresolved. However, the same can be said for the sacred. The sacred is a tool that humans use to understand the world around us, especially the things they may never wholly understand.
According to these lyrics, it appears that Jeff Mangum has a love for Anne Frank, a girl who has been dead for quite some time. Perhaps his love for her is a symbol of his sacred beliefs; that love lasts forever, in any plane of existence. Perhaps love is the sole thing that Mangum views as being sacred. He seems to see Anne Frank as something equivalent to an angel, so perhaps she herself is sacred. Jeff Mangum’s insight to how the sacred can be perceived is an interesting way to look at the world. While this album references the sacred, I do not consider In the Aeroplane Over The Sea a sacred album, but rather an album that uses traditional sacred references to explain a new, existential idea and a sad dream of loving someone who no longer exists.
Works Cited
“Brandon.” (2008, February 8.) Ten years of in the aeroplane over the sea. Sterogum. Retrieved from http://cutshallowradio.blogspot.com/2007/12/020-in-aeroplane-over-sea.html.
Griffis, K. (2003, September 4.) Have you seen Jeff Mangum? Creative Loafing. Retrieved fromhttp://clatl.com/atlanta/have-you-seen-jeff-mangum/Content?oid=1243486.
Raz. (2007, December 11.) In the aeroplane over the sea. Cut Shallow Radio. Retrieved from http://cutshallowradio.blogspot.com/2007/12/020-in-aeroplane-over-sea.html
