Song · Neutral Milk Hotel
“In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel
From the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)
“In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel appears on 13 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 2005 and 2026. It was first released in 1998 on the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Its best result is #80 on the KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #4,965 alternative song of all time.
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The title song of Neutral Milk Hotel's second and final studio album, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" came out on Merge on February 10, 1998, and Jeff Mangum wrote it alone. Robert Schneider produced, working with Mangum between July and September 1997 at Pet Sounds Studio to improve on the rough sound of the debut, On Avery Island, and getting his distortion from heavy compression instead of pedals and effects units.
The album around it is lo-fi psychedelic folk on indie rock bones, with singing saw and uilleann pipes crowding in beside the guitars and drums, and lyrics that go surreal and cryptic, from nostalgia to love, with Anne Frank's diary as a key influence. Reviews were only moderately warm at first, but a cult following grew, and critics now rank it among the best albums of the '90s.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 359 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2005) | 500 |
| 2006 | 330 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006) | 499 |
| 2007 | 551 | WTMD | WTMD Top 897 Songs of All Time | 897 |
| 2009 | 695 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2014 | 582 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2014) | 885 |
| 2018 | 327 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2019 | 80 | KEXP | KEXP Listeners' Favorite Songs of All Time | 627 |
| 2020 | 717 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 100 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 84 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
| 2023 | 695 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
| 2026 | 897 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
| 2026 | 735 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs You Discovered on The Colorado Sound | 1055 |
Also listed as: In the Aeroplane over the Sea; In The Aeroplane Over the Sea; In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
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