While the internet is buzzing with news of NMH's reunion; I see it as the perfect time to review the discography of what I can easily say is my favorite band. I won't go too in depth with the history of NMH, ( I recommend reading the fantastic book from the 33 1/3 series, all about In The Aeroplane Over The Sea)
I will talk about all three official releases they put out from 1994-1998.
"Everything Is" Is the first project released under the Neutral Milk Hotel monkier; at this point in the band's history, it was mainly Jeff Mangum with help from friends in the Elephant 6 Collective. And while the recording is pretty rough, the songs still shine through; especially on the title track and the closer "Tuesday Moon". The only other two tracks ( at least on the CD I purchased from a bargain bin) are "Snow Song Pt.1" which is the first glimpse of Jeff as the stripped-down and quite songwriter he would soon embrace on the following full lengths. And the sound-collage "Aunt Eggma Blowtorch", which is easily the weakest track, and also the longest at 5 minutes.
It's still rather impressive that there's really only one so-so song on here, seeing as this was made with basically shoestrings and an acoustic guitar.
8/10
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