Staff Reviews

Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island (reissue)

Review by Pieter J Macmillan

Do you need this re-issue? Well, if you already own On Avery Island then no: there’s nothing here that you haven’t heard before. However, if you’re a fan of Aeroplane but you’ve never checked out the first Neutral Milk Hotel record, or if you’re a completist who fancies a new piece of shiny coloured vinyl, then this is the perfect summer purchase for you.»

User reviews

• 7/10 by drownedinerrors

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deluxe repackaging in new mini gatefold sleeve with twenty four page poster booklet, this reissue includes the 'everything is' single and b-side 'snow song pt.1' from the original 1994 7" release. to celebrate je mangum curating and performing at this year's atp festivals comes a re-issue of his explosive 1996 debut by neutral milk hotel. je'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- recording. full of rapid- re wordplay with true and heartfelt experimentation, both ambitious and eclectic, it's not hard to see why this has been such an in uential 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 in uential 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. on its original release, this album ranked #35 in the annual village voice jazz & pop critics' poll. also, spin proclaimed this album one of the ten best "you didn't hear" of 1996.
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