What Happened to Neutral Milk Hotel?
Underground indie-rock band Neutral Milk Hotel seems to have faded into obscurity, save for the cult following they've amassed over the past two decades. Led by singer Jeff Mangum, the band initially released their most famous album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, back in 1998 (they'd released On Avery Island two years prior, but the former is synonymous with their legend). Aeroplane is a product of its time: Nirvana-esque with a dash of folk and a pinch of Lou Reed-style chaos.
The initial release garnered mixed reviews with a general tone of confusion. The AV Club stated this was a "standard response to a confusing album from a band without a preexisting pedigree: distant praise, hedging bets, avoiding the heart at all cost." At face value, the record is standard indie-rock, but the baffling part of Aeroplane is that it may (or may not) be about “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank.
The consensus seems to be that it is at least partially about the story of Anne Frank; Mangum has referenced his unhealthy obsession with the book numerous times while talking about the creation of Aeroplane, but is wary of stating its connection to the album directly. Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson dove deep into the myth of NMH for the album's 20th anniversary, saying, "The album asks: If the Anne Frank we know from her writing, a brilliant child filled with wonder, can be snuffed out by the greatest hate this world has ever seen, what hope do we have? The question is unanswerable, but there's a terrifying vulnerability in even asking it."
After the world's underwhelming response to Aeroplane and the subsequent tour, NMH went dormant, and Mangum was nowhere to be found. However, this is where the band inadvertently solidified their elite status in the indie-rock community. NMH reviews went through the roof as the years went on, Mangum being called “The Salinger of Indie Rock" and Aeroplane garnering its acclaim simply by existing. The AV Club's Luke Winkie said it best- "All they did was put out a record- the rest of the world lifted them into the stratosphere."
The band would ultimately embark on a reunion tour in 2013, but in the years between, Mangum was virtually nonexistent. The only times he stepped back into the public eye were a handful of solo live shows and his 2001 album Live at Jittery Joe's, featuring a gritty cover of The Paris Sisters' "I Love How You Love Me." Maybe he felt NMH had peaked with Aeroplane, or perhaps he longed for a quiet life after his brief time in the spotlight.
Mangum disappeared for a second time in 2015, only to reappear sporadically with his attendance at New York's Climate Strike in 2019 and a brief public statement endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2020. While fans may yearn for another Neutral Milk Hotel album (myself included), it's doubtful and would ruin their legendary reputation as One Album Wonders. As Richardson said, "If Mangum's presence is what initially brought him notice, he was ultimately defined most by his absence. And something happens to certain records when the artist who made them goes away."
Technically, Aeroplane was not their only studio album, but it might as well have been. They will forever be lumped into the aforementioned "One Album Wonder" category, along with Lauryn Hill, Jeff Buckley, and the Sex Pistols. It's not an exact science, but there's something to be said about now-beloved records that were the only works of the musicians who produced them.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is not a casual listen. Having it play in the background would be a disservice to the album's integrity and the story it attempts to tell through bared teeth, but I'm not here to tell you how to listen to music. If you're interested, give it a deep listen- It's a polarizing album, so you might end up hating it, but that's life.
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