Everything Is (Ep)

Uplifting. If the album Everything Is had to be described in one word, that would be my word of choice, it's uplifting. In hopes of creating friendship with a peer, I questioned a subject that most could relate to, music. This individual then turned me onto a band by the name of Neutral Milk Hotel. Their genre could be described as Indie or Psych Rock. This album was their first official release of their music. Many of their songs ended up being officially unreleased, though many songs have been played live or shared on demo tapes. The genre is a very exclusive one, it's almost an underground genre. Regular listeners don't often release the names of Indie bands solely  so the band is not discovered and ruined by record labels. I digress.

The first song is the title song, Everything Is. It is a song of affirmation and good feeling. It starts out with a child describing how they liked to dress up and it appears to be completely irrelevant to the song itself. The lyrics are what strike me as verbal art. The artist portrays this fantasy of personal ecstasy. The line "Everything is beautiful here" stimulates the idea that everybody is living their own personal experience and life is what you make it. In this sense, the singer tells us that his life is perfect in his eyes. The first time you listen to the song, you concentrate on the tone of all the instruments, drums, guitar, bass etc. The 3rd or 4th around you really don't here the instruments as much as you here the singer presenting this concept through his lyrics. 

The next song is a flawless follow. Snow Song Pt 1 is another song of inspiration for those feeling low. Lyrics. It talks about a girl who appears to not want to be left alone. The most significant line of this song is "And even the most silent must sing a song of love." It really inspires one to believe that anyone is capable of love, and as the legendary Beatles once said, "All you need is love." 

The next song digresses from the point album is making to give you a look into the bands founding members life. Aunt Eggma Blowtorch is a series of miscellaneous noises and slow rhythmic pattern that almost makes you want to go insane. It makes one feel as if they artist is letting you into his brain and the clutter that appears there. 

The ending track, Tuesday Moon, is a very appropriate end to an amazing album. It repeatedly returns to the chorus "Love you on a tuesday moon." Lyrics.

This is a greatly unapprecaited band, and maybe they like it that way, but it has raised my mood writing about them and listening to them. I find that throughout the repeated times listening to this album, I notice the instruments more and more and the lyrics less and less, and vise versa. It is what I would call an audio illusion, a "Do you see the old woman or the young lady" illusion.  This album is art.