#365songs (79 / 365)

I don't know, what's there to say about In the Aeroplane Over the Sea? One of the indie albums of all time. Believe the hype even if some of it came from 4chan.

I didn't find out about this album from 4chan. I'm not sure where I found out about it. Probably from people saying the Decemberists, who I bass-ackwardsly got into first, sounded like Neutral Milk Hotel, which: kind of, but also no.

The other contender for the single most impactful song on Aeroplane, to me, is the title track, but that one's a little too straightforwardly sweet to hold up like the psychosexual ambiguity in "Two-Headed Boy," and it doesn't have Jeff Mangum really cutting loose with his compellingly unrefined vocals like he does here. I have really no idea what this song is about. There's the thread of connections to Anne Frank all through the album, and I think there are some of those here, but I also don't think trying to tie Aeroplane too closely to Anne Frank does it any favors. Like many of my favorite songs, I prefer just to let the evocative imagery of this one wash over me.