Initially I didn't understand this album, when I felt the whole background and looked at the translations of the songs in my own language, I listened again and really got into it. If we look at this album with Arcade Fire's Funeral, I think that this album deserves more, it will never be overrated, it is a pure underground, but with a special sincerity and warmth, I listen to it five times in a row and it never gets bored, unlike Funeral for example
Great opening and ending, and it gets fully complicated record!

It's actually good but also overrated here

God, Jeff Mangum's is my crush or something'cause i really like everything he touches.
Well If someone would ask me what was your favorite folk album I would said It was this and If someone asked me what was my favorite album that is certainly not folk I would also say It is this. Can you get me? I don't think so.
This album is and It isn't, It is beatiful and It isn't, because sometimes It is creepy, It is good and sometimes It isn't beacause sometimes It is just brilliant.
Alright, enough of this nonsense, speaking of nonsense, nonsense is the most spoken word to define this album by the "unbelievers", the people that don't get this album, well I never was one of those people, and calling this nonsense being also a Bob Dylan fan is kind of strange, have you heard "Ballad of a Thing Men", THAT is strange to me. Well going back to Neutral Milk Hotel, I always liked their style since I first heard "King of Carrots pt.1" and "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea", like It instantly became one of my favorite songs of all time, but, for some reason It took me a lot of time to actually hear the album, and when I heard It, well, It instantly became one of my favorite álbuns of all time.

It might take a while to finally click, but fuck me, when it clicks, it CLICKS. Easily one of my all time favorites.

I agree with most of the comments here. Listened to it once, and I can tell it is very difficult to appreciate it first. But I really just love the vocals on Oh Comely. Lyricaly beautiful.. but must take time to appreciante the instruments more.

The most curious musical instrument arrangement meets the largest of lung capacities singing out the most surreal lyrics in the best thing you could ever do on top of the simplest and rawest guitar chord progressions to have ever existed, with occasionally the dirtiest, grimiest distortion. I love this album!!

Oh my goodness gracious, dis one guuuddd. I don't know what else to say that hasn't been said before, but I'll say stuff anyways. This album sounds like it was recorded with potatoes, but they're the best potatoes on the land. Honestly though, if you have a great record player set up, I would say to listen to this album on vinyl, cause it is by far the best version of it. I love how distorted some songs get, yet how simple everything feels. All the songs are such classics, and it feels like the most consistent album I've ever heard. "King of Carrot Flowers Pt 1,2 and 3" the title track, "Two Headed Boy Pt 1 & 2", "Holland 1945", "Oh Comely", "Ghost", they're all so frickin good. It's such a shame that Jeff Magnum didn't really do anything else after this, considering this came out in 1998. Although there was an EP in 2011 called 'Ferris Wheel On Fire' which is great. It's a nice little treat for someone looking for more, but it's mostly a Jeff Magnum solo project. To put it simply, this album is one of the most important indie folk/alt. folk albums ever made, and screams 'classic'.

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The only album in my top 100 that was discovered only once I had explored this website. There are other albums that I’ve been blown away by too but this one rises above them all to now sit amongst albums that have way more personal history for me. I’m really taken by it’s raw, impassioned, stripped back, poetic, acoustic, fringe dwelling aesthetic. If I’d bought it on release there’s no doubt it would be ranked higher but there’s time...

At first, Jeff Mangum's vocals have a cool and loose indie rock and folk feel, but as the album progresses you get occassionally surprised with the range he reaches. He will sing from the very top of his lungs to notes that might seem beyond his capabalities, being on the borderline of singing out of tune. He also does with a rawness that is only equalled by the instruments that accompany it. This adds a very unique character to the album, making it outstanding.

The lyrics are nothing short of hypnotizing and beautiful, and they flow like a river through the music. Every line has something memorable and quotable to offer. There's definitely genius songwriting all across this album.

Brilliant Album 9.5/10