Title: On Avery Island
Artiste: Neutral Milk Hotel
Genre: Indie
Track 1(Love) Is the production like really bad on this? Even so, I love the sort of stream-of-consciousness lyric and the trumpets (trombones?) are great. Really boppy, uptempo and cheerful. Good start.
Track 2(Love) Bit slower and more controlled, but still really like this. Organs are cool on this track. But I must say, the production is spoiling it a little for me. It's like listening to an old vinyl album that's seen better days. I've checked other musical sources on my PC and they play fine, so it's not just my system.
Track 3(Love) Acoustic ballad, lovely. Also the production is much, much better here. Very short track though.
Track 4(Love) Yeah, this is weird but in a good way. Like listening to a videogame while someone plays bagpipes or something. Interesting.
Track 5(Love) The marching beat just makes this song. Love it.
Track 6(Love) Oh, the combination of bass, organ and trumpet (yeah maybe it's a trombone; whatever it is it's wicked!) --- sublime!
Track 7(Love) There's great power in the guitar here. And again, those horns!
Track 8(Love) Another powerful track with a little touch of aggression about it.
Track 9(Love) Slow and something of a dirge but still very good
Track 10(Love) Another slow one, kind of acoustic. Like everything on this so far.
Track 11(Love) Very stark guitar on this, the horns add a great sense of morosity and bleakness.
Track 12(Hate) This song is nearly fourteen minutes long! Well it's just basically been the same melody and rhythm for the last three... ah, wait, it's changing now. Well, not quite: it's had some bells and whistles added but it's still the same repeated chords and notes. Sounds like a glockenspiel or something now as we hit the sixth minute. Yeah it's pretty much that all the way through. I don't actually Hate it but I can't say I Love it, so it's the first black mark against this album.
Track 13(Love) Yeah we're back on track. Good rocky uptempo track, great guitars.
Track 14(Love) Am I mad, or does this have a VU feel to it? Even the guitar sound like the Velvets. To me, who knows little to nothing of them. Sitar in there too?
End result: Really great album, a big improvement on ITAOTS (I know this came first) although maybe I need to relisten to that album. But this is great.
So, Love or Hate? A sure
Love
Chances of a full review: 6/10