SATCHMO

Oh, you're a keeper; I can already tell.

clutnuckle

If you just said that because you get Sun O))) and dislike NMH, I'd say that doesn't add up. Sun O))) is completely different than NMH on almost every artistic level. They're beyond comparison. Understanding the more drawn-out, droning of the two doesn't inherit understanding of the other, as NMH's music is complex in its own set of ways, regardless of how poppy it is on the surface.

I mean this not as an attack on you, but you said yourself in another thread that you have a natural bias towards pop music:

via http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...rtists-25.html

NMH do play basically a poppy brand of folk, injected with uncomfortable amounts of personal lyrics and an unsettling yet personal voice. It's only natural that if you think pop is a poor medium through which to express emotions/music, that you'd dislike it. I don't exactly understand what somebody else telling you it's experimental would do to your opinion; If somebody told me "Bro check out Neutral Milk Hotel it's this avant-garde jazz band" I would say "Okay" and then if/when I did, and realized that they weren't, I'd say... "That guy knew nothing about what he was talking about... But I quite like it for what it is."

sidewinder

Lol. For some reason - me being very unreligious - that part of the song never struck me as preachy and I was always able to look past it, never taking it seriously. Doesn't mean I particularly like that part of the album, but it doesn't keep me from enjoying it.

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debaserr

same boat for me. for a while i wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not. apparently he is quite religious. my favorite song from the album:

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LoathsomePete

You know Cowboy Dayvan's comment made me break out the album, which I've had for over a year now. It really does stand out as a unique album in that scene at that time period. It has some incredibly surreal lyrics, in which songs contain lyrics about semen being somewhere it shouldn't ("the mountain tops" & "a garden" respectfully). The inclusion of a trumpet for this kind of indie rock album was something I hadn't heard before. Not only that, the vocalist really has a bad voice, but you can hear him trying and that's kind of nice. However his voice also really lends to the songs adding a whole other instrument. I don't usually gush about stuff from this genre, but this is one of those albums that's popular for a reason, it's damn good.

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debaserr

i'd say the quality of his voice is quite subjective. i hadn't heard any vocals close to that when i heard the album initially(i was 12 or 13). they add a visceral rawness to the album. and i agree the instrumentation is great. i'd say it's the biggest reason next to his voice that makes me like them. personally, the pinnacle for the album is when the horns kick in on "oh, comely".

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crash_override

The vocals are definitely a grower. While they're not good by traditional means, I think it gives the album a nice personality.

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debaserr

i was instantly intrigued by the vocals. i would guess it's either that or repulsion.

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sidewinder

It's a great example of why having a great voice doesn't make you a great singer and having a shit voice doesn't mean you can't sing.

To quote Dave Berman of Silver Jews, "All my favorite singers couldn't sing."

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Nine Black Poppies

I agree with pretty much everything clutnuckle said about the comparison to Sunn O))) being pretty unapt, but just to add--almost everyone I've ever talked to who doesn't like that album mentions THAT ONE LINE at some point in their explanation and it's kind of a pet peeve of mine.

If you don't like it, that's fine, you can like or not like whatever you want. But it's an incredibly dense record, lyrically. Being dismissive on the basis of one line that isn't obvious in its intent (my interpretation of that has been that that part of the song seems to be more about a sense of change and rebirth using religious ecstasy as a metaphor, but it's really impressionistic and probably supports a few different interpretations) seems like not trying to understand it for what it is.

As for Jeff's voice, I would suggest one tries singing along with some of those songs, sustaining some of those notes or moving through verses as quickly as he does, cos it's not easy. He's definitely got an unusual tonal quality to his voice, but he also knows how to use it really well.

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