In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

the take

While it doesn’t have the best songs ever, in terms of everything else an album can bring, this might be the greatest album of all time at all those things. This might be the most cohesive track listing ever. This might be the best storytelling ever in an album. This might be the best climatic buildup and execution an ever in an album. This might be the most socially visionary album of all time. And while I don’t think it’s THE GOAT of all those qualifications, it’s one of the GOATs of each of those qualitification. Which nets out to this being one of the best albums of all time. A meticulous masterpiece that feels like a continuous experience, that explores beauty and innocence is songs like King of Carrot Flowers, and also sulking, soul-sucking lows in songs like Oh Comely and Two-Headed Boy pt 2. The album starts off with this innocence that portrays the joyous feelings of love, and eventually it brings in this narrative of Nazi Germany and Anne Frank, where the album begins to discover cruel things, far from the innocence it once betrayed. It ends with Two Headed Boy pt 2, where Anne Frank dies, and it kind of just leaves us with that bombshell of information. The album was created because of the turmoil that Jeff Mangum went through after studying the story of Anne Frank, and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a more emotionally mature exploration of a narrator’s perspective in my life. The album takes us through Jeff’s experience. Jeff thought the world is so free of cruelty, and was swiftly haunted by the horrors of humanity. The music, the energy, the emotion takes us through that same journey. The innocence > the devastating discovery > the sulking depression. It’s an emotional narrative maybe second to none. This album has gained a legendary legacy for a reason, it’s absolutely beautiful.