Of all the recordings to emerge from the Athens-via-Denver collective called "Elephant 6", Neutral Milk Hotel's second album is the one that has worked its way under the most skins. "Magnet" magazine named it the best album of the 1990s, and "Creative Loafing" recently devoted a cover story to one fan's quest to understand why bandleader Jeff Mangum dropped out of sight soon after "Aeroplane's" release. The record sells steadily to an audience that finds it through word of mouth.

Weird, beautiful, absorbing, difficult, "In The Aeroplane Over the Sea" is a surrealist text loosely based on the life, suffering and reincarnation of Anne Frank, with guest appearances from a pair of Siamese twins menaced by the cold and carnivores, a two-headed boy bobbing in a jar, anthropomorphic vegetables and a variety of immature erotic horrors. Mangum sings his dreamlike narratives with a dreamer's intensity, his creaky, off key voice occasionally breaking as he struggles to complete each dense couplet. The music is like nothing else in the 90s Indie Underground a psychedelic brass band, its members self-taught, forging polychromatic washes of mood and tribute.

The songs stick to one narrow key, the images repeat and circle back, and to listen is to be absorbed into a singular, heart-rending vision.

Neutral Milk Hotel‘s explosive 1996 debut, On Avery Island, receives the deluxe reissue treatment with a yellow and red vinyl 2xLP press, complete with revised artwork and cut at 45RPM.

Jeff Mangum’s songs are cryptic and crazed, his ideas fast and furious, and together they force the home-recording concept out of the basement and into a brave new world, a fuzzy masterpiece of experimental lo-fi recording.

Full of rapid-fire wordplay with true and heartfelt experimentation, both ambitious and eclectic, it’s not hard to see why this has been such an influential album.

Part of the fabled Elephant 6 collective, Neutral Milk Hotel won over many a music critic with this cult classic. The band are recognized as one of the most influential alternative acts to come out of the mid-90s and sowed the seeds for everything from anti-folk to the likes of Arcade Fire, Caribou and even Franz Ferdinand

TRACK LISTING

Side A (45RPM)
A1 Song Against Sex
A2 You've Passed
A3 Someone Is Waiting
Side B (45RPM)
B1 A Baby For Pree
B2 Marching Theme
B3 Where You'll Find Me Now
Side C (45RPM)
C1 Avery Island/April 1st
C2 Gardenhead/ Leave Me Alone
C3 Three Peaches
Side D (33RPM)
D1 Naomi
D2 April 8th
D3 Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye

The two full-length records that Jeff Mangum made as Neutral Milk Hotel sound both in and out of time. Like translations of a shared subconscious, 1996’s On Avery Island and 1998’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea give voice to the perennial spirit of youthful epiphany, of beginning to see the world clearly, to process and express it—no matter when you encounter them. With lo-fi indie rock, accordion, singing saw, tape collages, the so-called “zanzithophone” and beyond, Neutral Milk Hotel created an eternal entry into their Elephant 6 scene and an enduring feeling of possibility. Mangum was born in the small city of Ruston, Louisiana, coming of age within the ’80s and ’90s indie and punk undergrounds, a movement of teenagers recording in their bedrooms, sharing zines and trading tapes, listening to hardcore and experimental music on college radio. For all the mythology Mangum’s elusive persona has accrued, it’s the beguiling songs themselves that have resonated so deeply for generations. In 2011, Mangum collected nearly all of the band’s recorded output in a limited-edition box set (self-released under Neutral Milk Hotel Records, a small operation helmed by Mangum and his mother) which is now being updated for wide reissue by the band’s longtime label Merge RecordsBlack matte box is a 2-piece telescoping casewrapped package.

Outer shrinkwrap includes a front sticker with “Neutral Milk Hotel,” and a back sticker listing box contents.

Full Contents:
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea LP is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to black vinyl in a gatefold jacket.

On Avery Island 2LP is 12 tracks pressed to double black vinyl in a gatefold jacket + 11 x 11 printed insert.. Sides A, B and C pressed 45RPM. Side D pressed 33RPM.

Live at Jittery Joe’s 12” picture disc is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to a full color picture disc in a heavyweight poly jacket.

Ferris Wheel on Fire 10” is 8 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert.

Everything Is 10” is 7 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert.

“Little Birds” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.

“You’ve Passed” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.

“Holland” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.

2 folded posters, each printed one side and each 24” x 24” when flat.

1 postcard, printed front and back with box set information and sized 3.75” x 5”

All of above assembled in a 12" two-piece telescoping case-wrapped box.

TRACK LISTING

"On Avery Island" 2LP
Side A (45 RPM)
1 Song Against Sex
2 You've Passed
3 Someone Is Waiting
Side B (45 RPM)
4 A Baby For Pree
5 Marching Theme
6 Where You'll Find Me Now
Side C (45 RPM)
7 Avery Island/April 1st
8 Garden Head/Leave Me Alone
9 Three Peaches
Side D (33 RPM)
10 Naomi
11 April 8th
12 Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye

"In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" LP
Side A (33 RPM)
1 The King Of The Carrot Flowers Part One
2 The King Of The Carrot Flowers Parts Two & Three
3 In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
4 Two-Headed Boy
5 The Fool
6 Holland, 1945
7 Communist Daughter
Side B (33 RPM)
8 Oh Comely
9 Ghost
10 Untitled
11 Two-Headed Boy Part Two

"Ferris Wheel On Fire" 10"
Side A (45 RPM)
1 Oh Sister
2 Ferris Wheel On Fire
3 Home
4 April 8th
Side B (45 RPM)
5 I Will Bury You In Time
6 Engine
7 A Baby For Pree/Glow Into You
8 My Dream Girl Don't Exist

"Everything Is" 10"
Side A (45 RPM)
1 Everything Is
2 Here We Are (For W. Cullen Hart)
3 Unborn
Side B (45 RPM)
4 Tuesday Moon
5 Ruby Bulbs
6 Snow Song
7 Aunt Eggma Blow Torch

"Little Birds" 7"
Side A (45 RPM)
1 Little Birds
Side B (45 RPM)
2 Little Birds (Studio Version)

"You've Passed" 7"
Side A (45 RPM)
1 You've Passed
Side B (45 RPM)
2 Where You'll Find Me Now

"Holland" 7"
Side A (45 RPM)
1 Holland, 1945
Side B (45 RPM)
2 Engine

"Live At Jittery Joe's" 12" Picture Disk
Side A (33 RPM)
1 A Baby For Pree
2 Two-Headed Boy
3 I Will Bury You In Time
4 Garden Head/Leave Me Alone
5 Two-Headed Boy Part Two
6 I Love How You Love Me
Side B (33 RPM)
7 Engine
8 Naomi
9 King Of Carrot Flowers Part Two
10 King Of Carrot Flowers Part Three
11 Oh Comely

Neutral Milk Hotel is Elephant 6 co-founder Jeff Mangum, Julian Koster (of Music Tapes), Scott Spillane (of the Gerbils) and Jeremy Barnes (of Beirut, A Hawk and a Hacksaw). In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the best-selling Merge titles of all time. In addition, annually, the album charts among the top vinyl titles sold industry wide in the USA. Originally released in 1998, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was named Best Album of the ‘90s by Magnet Magazine. Album rated 10.0 via Pitchfork at reissue (2005). 

TRACK LISTING

1. The King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. One
2. The King Of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two &Three
3. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
4. Two-Headed Boy
5. The Fool Holland
6. 1945 Communist Daughter
7. Oh Comely
8. Ghost, [untitled Track]
9. Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two