History Music / InTheAeroplaneOverTheSea

* AlbumTitleDrop: The page quote.

* WeAllDieSomeday: The title track acknowledges this and notes on how we shouldn't let that one thing keep us down, and that there's so much beauty in life to see before it's too late.

* TheFaceless: On the cover, a large hole has been cut out where the woman's head should be.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''Can't believe -- how strange it is to be anything at all...'']]

''But for now, we are young, let us lay in the sun''\\

''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' (1998) is the second and final album released by American indie rock band Music/NeutralMilkHotel. It was recorded in the at the time newly formed Pet Sounds Studio, named after the [[Music/PetSounds lauded classic]] by Music/TheBeachBoys, featuring the eclectic instrumentation and bizarre lyricism that the band would be known for.

As journalists have retrospectively noted, the release of ''ITAOTS'' lined up quite nicely with the rise of the Internet, and as the album and band became common fixtures on message boards and in the circulations of early music outlets like Pitchfork, it received a ''massive'' [[CultClassic cult following]], elevating its status to [[RevivalByCommercialization one of the most acclaimed and celebrated indie rock albums of all time]]. Many would identify the most well-known aspect of the album's following as the FountainOfMemes its art and lyrics generated on Website/FourChan's /mu/ board -- memes that have almost overshadowed the real album itself.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "King of Carrot Flowers pt. 1" -> "King of Carrot Flowers pts. 2 and 3," "Two-Headed Boy" -> "The Fool," "Communist Daughter" -> "Oh Comely," and "Ghost" -> track 10 -> "Two-Headed Boy pt. 2" all do this.

* LoudnessWar: This album is really clipped for a folk album, with a dynamic range rating of [=DR6=] and a replay gain value of -9.80 [=dB=]. The 2009 vinyl appears to have been sourced from the same master as the CD. This may be a case of digital distortion being used intentionally (the album actually credits "white noise" as a musical instrument), but it's still really disorienting at first.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: A lot of tracks on this album have only three or four chords ("King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 1-3," "Ghost," "Oh Comely," and the title track, just to name a few.)

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[ShoutOut Can't believe]] [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland how strange it is to be anything at all...]]'']]

As journalists have retrospectively noted, the release of ''ITAOTS'' lined up quite nicely with the rise of the Internet, and as the album and band became common fixtures on message boards and in the circulations of early music outlets like Pitchfork, it received a ''massive'' cult following, elevating its status to [[RevivalByCommercialization one of the most acclaimed and celebrated indie rock albums of all time]]. Many would identify the most well-known aspect of the album's following as the FountainOfMemes its art and lyrics generated on Website/FourChan's /mu/ board -- memes that have almost overshadowed the real album itself.

However, this album's sudden burst in popularity was not wholly beneficial to the band. Mangum struggled with the band's newfound attention, and the stress from constant touring and being repeatedly asked to explain his lyrics bore down intensely on his mental health. Things eventually got to the point that he shut himself in his home for days on end and eventually decided that he would not be able to continue writing and performing songs, but could not will himself to express this to his fellow band members, as they had just experienced their first substantial success, and some of them had quit jobs to be in the band.

''In the Aeroplane Over the Sea'' (1998) is the second album released by American indie rock band Music/NeutralMilkHotel. It was recorded in the at the time newly formed Pet Sounds Studio, named after the [[Music/PetSounds lauded classic]] by Music/TheBeachBoys, featuring the eclectic instrumentation and bizarre lyricism that the band would be known for.

* NotChristianRock: "King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2" starts off with the lines "I love you Jesus Christ". Many people confuse this for a Christian rock song. Notice that a part of the lyrics for this song is absent from the booklet, [[AllThereInTheManual with this message being there instead]]: "a song for an old friend a song for a new friend and now a song for jesus christ and since this seems to confuse people i'd like to simply say that i mean what i sing although the theme of endless endless on this album is not based on any religion but more in the belief that all things seem to contain a white light within them that i see as eternal."

-->--'''[[TitleTrack "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"]]'''

* StudioChatter: You can very faintly hear someone yell “Holy shit!” at the end of “Oh Comely.” According to WordOfGod, this is because Mangum had gone into the recording booth for a sound check, but decided in the moment to perform the entire song and did it perfectly in one take.

* RecycledInSpace: Anne Frank...ON [[UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud FREUD!]]

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: In about the 6-8 range. There's no gory imagery or swearing, but the sexual imagery and themes of the holocaust push it up here.
** Some songs would be a 4, such as "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1" or "In the Aeroplane Over The Sea" if the lyrics weren't so unsettling and strange.