In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - A Haunting Tribute to Anne Frank
- Aug 9, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2022
Photo: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (released in 1998) is Neutral Milk Hotel’s second released album. Written as a “loving” tribute to Anne Frank, in order to properly experience this album, you need to be in a position where you can focus on the lyrics and dissect them as they are sung.
I first heard about this album after British comedian, James Acaster mentioned it on a Podcast. Having read his book ‘Perfect Sound Whatever’, I expected the oddness of the album, making me even more intrigued to listen. What fascinated me most about Acaster’s description was how he mentioned the album was written around frontman Jeff Mangum’s obsession with Anne Frank and her experience during the Holocaust. He wrote all of the songs in his car with nothing but the murmuring sound of a religious radio station in the background. There’s a “subtle” hint to this in track King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3 where “I love you Jesus Christ” is constantly repeated.
Holland 1945 is my favourite track on the record due it’s upbeat nature that’s contradicted by the harrowing descriptive imagery in the lyrics. The lyric “And it’s so sad to see the world agree that they’d rather see their faces fill with flies” refers to the horrifying sight of Jewish corpses left in the concentration camps. To contradict this, a more beautiful lyric “was born with roses in her eyes” suggests that Anne Frank was born with a perception that allowed her to see the beauty in the world rather than the pain.
Two – Headed Boy takes a step back from the heavy focus on the Anne Frank narrative in the album and deems reflective on Jeff Mangum himself. The title and lyric “two – headed boy” forms the idea of a split between reality and fantasy, what is real and what is not. There is more of this sense of a personal attachment to Anne frank as Mangum seems desirable of her love in lyrics like “will wait until the point when you let go”. Part of him seems regrettable over the fact that he could not save her from her death, this idea was reflected in an interview with Puncture where he stated “I would go to bed every night and have dreams about having a time machine and somehow I’d have the ability to move through time and space freely, and save Anne Frank”.
The rest of the album has many obvious links to Anne Frank and Mangum’s romanisation of her and her story. It can be questioned whether the record is a piece of artistic genius or whether Mangum took his obsession too far. Personally, I believe his obsessive nature is disturbing yet somehow, he manages to captivate us as listeners through his imagery and eerie acoustic backing tracks. The context to this album is what makes it one of my favourite records and for the continuous future I will continue to discuss its troublesome backstory at any given opportunity.
Listen to The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel on Spotify now: https://open.spotify.com/album/0vVekV45lOaVKs6RZQQNob?highlight=spotify:track:5rfT032kGmLvbxZzfHlu5D
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