‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ is Jeff Mangum’s Perverted Fantasy

As a child, I often found myself in the backseat of my dad’s silver Toyota Camry next to my younger sister. Sitting in our car seats, we would laugh at the songs my dad played for us. A band that we found particularly ridiculous was called Neutral Milk Hotel. I remember their eclectic instrumentation, with horns, keyboards, and electric guitars, along with their lyrics, which I never took the time to understand. What stood out to us most was the name. Why was it just three random words? We would tease him for listening to it. “Hey Dad, is this Alligator Shoe Clock?” An eruption of giggles. When I got older and began to listen to every suggestion my dad could spit out with hungry ears, I grew fond of the band and was grateful to be introduced to them so young. I learned that what I once thought was silliness, were very melancholy lyrics yearning to be dissected through their easier to listen to instrumental counterparts. The album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a gift to the uncool, but its unlikely origins make informed listeners wary of appreciating it. 

Jeff Mangum, the band’s singer and guitarist, found his inspiration for their second album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, while working on his first album, On Avery Island. Somewhere within the recording process of the first album, he read The Diary of Anne Frank and found himself deeply moved by her story, and profoundly upset by her death. Though it is clear Jeff admires Anne, this does not change the fact that she received the diary at thirteen, and her story takes place from then up until her death at sixteen years old. Mangum’s blatant admission of passion for the young girl is disturbing, and it is extremely off-putting for him to come out so unbothered by the public display of his feelings. He discusses it briefly in an article for Pitchfork in December of 1997, two months before Aeroplane was released. “Here I am as deep as you can go in someone’s head, in some ways deeper than you can go with even someone you know in the flesh. And then at the end, she gets disposed of like a piece of trash. And that was something that completely blew my mind”. His anguish and investment in her story provided an abundance of inspiration, and the album practically wrote itself. Within many of the tracks, listeners may identify references to Anne’s life and death, as well as Jeff’s thoughts on the matter. The most blatantly about Anne is the album’s sixth track, ‘Holland, 1945’. “The only girl I’ve ever loved / Was born with roses in her eyes / But then they buried her alive / One evening, 1945 / With just her sister at her side” (0:14-0:31) Jeff often discusses the act of putting flowers in the eyes of dead people. Not much information is available on whether or not this is a tradition specifically with flowers, however, within the Jewish funeral traditions, Jewish individuals are often buried with dirt or dust in their eyes, showing that their body is returning to the ground. It could be interpreted as Jeff wanting to place flowers in the eyes of Anne, to return her to the ground in a beautiful way. Another common theme found within the album that, through research, relates to his admiration for Anne, is the wrapping in sheets. It is found in about seven instances within the album, and also within the track ‘Holland, 1945’ is the line “And now we ride the circus wheel / With your dark brother wrapped in white / Says it was good to be alive / But now he rides a comet’s flame / And won’t be coming back again” (1:10-1:27). This shows that the brother has since passed on, and in Jewish funeral traditions, it is common to wrap individuals in white linen. While the songs on this album might initially appear simple and childlike, delving into the lyrics reveals profound layers of complexity. Jeff Mangum’s obsession with Anne Frank and his ease in expressing his love for her to the world can be deeply upsetting upon reflection. 

Other than his infatuation with Anne Frank, the other prevalent themes observed in the album are rather disturbing. One that continues to catch my attention is innocence. In an article written by Mark Richardson from Pitchfork in 2018 titled ‘How Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Became a Polarizing Cult Classic’, Richardson discusses how important it was to the band to show how “above all [is] a portrayal of innocence, to love it is to imagine forces that want to extinguish it”. Following this standpoint, within the album there are times when it can be found that the innocent people characterized through the songs, are saved or cherished, and Mangum presents himself as a savior for them. However, this innocence is very often followed by the loss of innocence found when children mistake sex for love. Fans presume that Jeff himself did not have a good upbringing and his relationship with his parents was rather rocky, and it shines through in his songs. In the opening track, ‘The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1’, Jeff moves back and forth from the parents' activities to those of the children. “And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy’s shoulder / And dad would throw the garbage all across the floor / As we would lay and learn what each other’s bodies were for / And this is the room one afternoon I knew I could love you / And from above you how I sank into your soul / Into that secret place where no one dares to go” (0:31-1:13). Mangum presents the taboo situation of children losing their virginity too young because their parents do not set a good example of what love can be, allowing young children to confuse sex with love.  Something very special about Mangum’s writing is his ability to come from a place of adolescent innocence discussing severe topics. He finds a way to take the edge off of subjects in some cases, but in others, it can come off as alarming with his references to sexual feelings with and love for people who were minors. 

Due to Mangum’s intentional choice of what can be seen as rather unconventional themes, as well as intentionally poor production, the band has received a large amount of scrutiny. Jeff Mangum’s surreal lyrics have managed to be celebrated by some fans due to their poetic depth- and shunned by others for their seeming lack of accessibility to a wider and more mainstream audience. While this sense of surrealism has contributed to Neutral Milk Hotel’s cult status, the unorthodox development of their album can easily put everything in a subdued light for a more educated listener.