Neutral Milk Hotel / In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Megan Kelly Merge Records Since the release of Neutral Milk Hotel's first album On Avery Island, someone has broken frontman Jeff Mangum's heart. The second LP from the Athens, Georgia-based band, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, tells the tragic tale of a love grown old. Don't just listen to this album (well, you won't be able to until March 3rd anyway since it hasn't been released yet). Love it. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is like reliving Mangum's fatal love story ... like reliving your own fatal love story (c'mon, admit it, I know you have one). It will make your heart beat faster as the lyrics send you back to those first days when love was fresh, new, exciting. When the sound of your lover's voice made your body melt and sent chills down your spine. The first kiss ... the first touch. However, as we know all too well, this feeling won't last forever. No, inevitably the passion cools, the intensity fizzles. You're left feeling sick and numb and confused and hurt. The order of the songs on the album parallels the heartbreaking words that flood from the speakers into my room, my car, wherever I happen to be since I haven't stopped listening to this intensely painful yet comforting tape since the moment that it came into my possession. One song is melancholy and depressing, with Mangum's acoustic guitar supporting his tortured voice. The next rocks out, his anguished cries echoed in the fuzz of the distortion pedal. Just like love, I suppose. One minute you're on top of the world. The next you're ready to throw yourself off of it. Mangum's quivering voice passionately croons the cathartically morbid lyrics, accompanied by a lone trombone: "What a beautiful face/I have found in this place/that is circling all 'round the sun./What a beautiful dream/that could flash on the screen/in the blink of an eye and be gone/from me." The cover of 1995's On Avery Island features a carnival scene, and this theme carries over into their latest endeavor. Mangum takes you with him on his own voyage down the Tunnel of Love, as he desperately searches for a sense of peace and freedom from the horrifying yet thrilling journey. The calliope music in the background is reminiscent of the soundtrack to a cheesy slasher movie set in a carnival. He doesn't recognize himself in the funhouse mirrors and can't find his way out of the maze. Yet Mangum remains hopeful that the ride will eventually come to an end. Following in the signature sound introduced in On Avery Island, Mangum continues to explore the balance between the fuzzy drone of electric guitar and lithe acoustic strumming. Like his mates in the Elephant 6 collective, including Olivia Tremor Control and Beulah, he holds a deep respect for pop orchestration coupled with dark, emotional exploration. The result is at once accessible and deeply, almost painfully, personal. In the album's title track, Mangum suggests embracing those few precious moments of happiness before his world is inevitably shattered: "But for now we are young/let us play in the sun/and count every beautiful thing we can see." I'm right behind you, Jeff. I'm right behind you!

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