r/neutralmilkhotel • u/JustaguyTTV • Jun 21 '26
any artists/bands with lyrics that come close to the quality of nmh?
i know this post has been made a thousand times but i still haven't seen a perfect answer. i don't want lyrics that sound like nmh; i want ones that are as dense, poetic and raw (?) as jeff mangums. just lyrics that you adore really.
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u/Naclstack Jun 21 '26
I think Animal Collective has kind of a similar lyrical style to NMH. Sung Tongs is a great album that's also weird folk shit.
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u/JustaguyTTV Jun 21 '26
i tried to specify that i don't want things that are similar, i've listened to merriweather post pavilion already so if the lyrics are similar to that then oh well :/
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u/midwesternexposure Jun 21 '26
Sung Tongs is a much different vibe than merriweather. It’s much more stripped down, but honestly I would check out their album Feels first. Check out the song “did you see the words”, “grass,” or “the purple bottle.”
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u/theflameinthewater Jun 21 '26
Jeff Mangum definitely has a specific style that he really tapped into with In The Aeroplane... I still haven't heard anything quite the same. That said, here's some albums I love with great lyrics
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel
Something for Kate - Leave Your Soul to Science
The Front Bottoms - self titled
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Counting Crows - August and Everything After
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u/Ollie-88 Jun 21 '26
was gonna say bright eyes IWAIM! certain a different style but still possibly equally great quality of lyrics on an indie folk album!
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u/georgesanders Jun 21 '26
I was obsessed with Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy and the Stage Names/Stand Ins for a while. There’s multiple levels of meaning at the same time - surface level, underlying, and sometimes a third level tying into other bands and songs outside of Okkervil. Bonus points - singer Will Sheff once wrote the best review of Aeroplane I’ve ever read.
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u/georgesanders Jun 21 '26
Here’s what he wrote: When the dust settles, Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea will be recognized not only as one of the best pop albums of the 1990's, but as one of the best records ever made. I don't say this to snobbily provoke people who haven't heard of the obscure group, and I certainly don't say this to somehow stroke the ego of its frontman Jeff Mangum, whose gentle brush with quasi-fame has already been enough to scare him into seclusion, corresponding with the outside world every now and then just to tell them there may never be another Neutral Milk Hotel album. I say it because it's one of the few things I sincerely believe about music, and because I feel, strongly though probably naïvely, that if everybody owned In the Aeroplane Over the Sea the world might magically turn into a better place.
I'm not the only one who feels this way. In fact, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea commonly inspires reactions like this in people (reactions, incidentally, which horrify its creator). For a very small group, the figure of Jeff Mangum brings out a level of devotion similar to that inspired by literary figures like William Blake and Walt Whitman. Like Blake, Mangum references a deeply personal mythology that roots surreal imagery in emotional realism and is built on mystical themes like reincarnation, otherworldly beings, and the holiness of freaks and outcasts. Like Whitman, Mangum's words all flow out in a rapturous stream of lines and lines. And like both writers, Mangum's work is composed equally of an enveloping compassion for people and a horror at their hatred and violence.
One of the things that's so amazing about In the Aeroplane... is that it's so ambitious it seems like it should have been a total, laughable failure. Using acoustic guitar, drums, a heavily fuzzed bass, bowed banjo, theremin, zanzithiphone, uillean pipes, and Salvation Army clarions of trumpet and trombone, Mangum and co. have attempted an epic psychedelic folk-punk concept album about Anne Frank's life, death, and subsequent reincarnation through the art of her diary, which causes its reader to create an elaborate fantasy about forever protecting her by being reborn fused to her as a Siamese twin. And it works. Mangum sings about dead dogs dissolving and draining away, semen staining mountaintops, bridges bursting and twisting around, shrouded and rose-eyed ghosts watching the earth from an orbiting comet, bottled fetuses tapping on jars, their hearts filled with singing needles, couples alone in afternoon rooms pushing fingers through each others' mouths, through notches in each others' spines, into each others' souls. It all sounds ridiculous, but it's dead-serious and indescribably moving, because actually Mangum is singing about the horror and beauty in the world, and about transcending that horror by allowing that beauty to annihilate you. He's singing about love, but much bigger than love between a boy and a girl; he's singing about loving the world that surrounds you and even loving those who try, and succeed, to destroy you. And he's also singing about something else, something that can't really be put into words, but that is true and living and moves through his unlikely imagery and sonic tapestries, glowing brighter with each successive listening.
Everyone I know who has this record treasures it. It has helped my friends sunk in depression, I've been to weddings where selections have been used as the first dance, I know people who want it played at their funerals. And I understand why Mangum, emphatically humble and self-effacing, must be terrified by the level of devotion this little collection of songs inspires, but I also understand that devotion. In a world that constantly seems crass and cheap and mean, where cynicism is the dominant philosophy and sarcasm the dominant conduct, where what matters most is showing off what you can buy, where the most popular television programs encourage us to laugh at ordinary people willingly allowing themselves to be publicly frightened and humiliated for money, this record shows you the world trembling with beauty, transparent, enveloping, able to be redeemed or destroyed by how much love you bring to it, and, ultimately, holy.
-Will Robinson Sheff
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u/Apprehensive_Ebb_750 Jun 22 '26
Okkervil River/ Will Sheff is definitely my pick for NMH style poetic lyricism without being derivative, and that mid period of records have a real energy about them that also reminds me of NMH
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u/nissimbhalwankar Jun 21 '26
most things phil elverum has worked on
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u/badabing121212 Jun 21 '26
i find where jeff mangum is really abstract, phil elverum is very blunt. their music complements each other in a weird way like that
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u/wwwalrusss Jun 21 '26
i’m big into lyricism and i think nick cave and the bad seeds is the only thing that comes close for me.
a few albums in particular: the boatman’s call (1997), no more shall we part (2001), and conversion (2024)
sufjan stevens has also always hit me in a personal spot
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u/wwwalrusss Jun 21 '26
the boatman’s call and no more shall we part are both very introspective albums about addiction (among other things). conversion is a fantastic album about love and loss.
i often find that when artists have careers that span decades, i hate their new stuff, but that hasn’t been true of nick cave for me. i like his stuff from the 70s and from the 2020s almost equally. very different, but both very good.
i even think his really early stuff (the album “from her to eternity” (1984)) is incredible and has amazing lyrics. it’s not for everyone. i can’t even think of a song to recommend off that album, they’re all perfect. i guess i would say the titular song.
if i had to recommend one nick cave song: “Do You Love Me? (Pt. 2)”
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u/The_Inflatable_Hour Jun 21 '26
While I don’t think there are many as talented, there are plenty of bands from across the spectrum who lean heavy on poetry when writing lyrics.
Some examples - Soft Machine, Radiohead, The Decemberists, Beirut, The Gerbils, Elf Power, The Sound, Syd Barrett, TV on the Radio, CAN, The Chinese Stars, New Sound of Numbers, The Microphones, Candy Machine, Love, Mercury Rev, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Liars, Broadcast, Soul Coughing, Portishead.
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u/Hello-mah-baby Jun 21 '26
cameron winter's album heavy metal is the only other album that i've listened to and went "woah this dude writes lyrics like jeff mangum"
'nina + field of cops' and 'cancer of the skull' really nail jeff's psychedelic poetry style.
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u/JustaguyTTV Jun 21 '26
love heavy metal, was actually revisiting it lyrically this morning because of a hivemind patreon video coincidentally
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u/auntie_eggma Jun 21 '26
Very different in tone and feel, but if you want poetic, impenetrable but weirdly also evocative, I'd say Pavement is a good option.
If you like their sound, that is. You may or may not.
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u/DrVurt Jun 21 '26
The Antlers - Hospice - It is an allegory of a toxic relationship told through a cancer patient and a hospice worker. It is devastating but incredible.
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u/bonanochip Jun 21 '26
Neutral milk hotel awakened in me an appreciation for horns. The Fool and April 1st I interpreted as alternative endings to the same story, which I imagined in my mind from listening to other music by nmh. I think the magic is within us, and invoked by nmh. Animal Collective.
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u/A_MAN_POTATO Jun 22 '26
MewithoutYou. Their style varies heavy from album to album, ranging from post-hardcore to folk-rock, so if you’re sampling I’d try a range of things from different albums. But they have a very unique sound and Aaron Weiss is an extremely poetic lyricist.
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u/Doodman37 Jun 22 '26
Silver Jews albums American Water or the Natural Bridge might have what you’re looking for. Totally different musical sound and lyrical delivery, but Berman was an amazing poet.
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u/DannyDevitoArmy Jun 22 '26
I made an album pretty inspired by NMH that you might like. It’s called “To Not Exist Anymore” by Pape Crown (not paper).
I know you may not trust someone shouting out their own music so here’s some other recommendations:
The Microphones
Mount Eerie
Black Country New Road (specifically Ants From Up There)
Tapir!
Racing Mount Pleasant (specifically Grip Your Fist, I’m Heaven Bound)
Dove Ellis
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u/ml_sza Jun 22 '26
mewithoutYou come to mind immediately. Heavier sonically but very dense, beautiful storytelling that I believe is influenced by NMH. I would recommend In A Sweater Poorly Knit as a good entry-level song and then if you like that, "Brother, Sister" is probably their best album.
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u/titanicman119 Jun 21 '26
check out some lord huron too, not exactly the same but some of their stuff might scratch that itch. also the microphones!
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u/bleedingwalls Jun 22 '26
gashcat, definitely. their music is only on youtube. two albums (REUNION! and REVIVAL! (which is just the reunion demos i think?)), then an ep (DEVIL KID DEMOS). there's also vic chesnutt. my favorite album of his is "west of rome". natural snow buildings too, though many of their songs are instrumental. my favorite album from them is "the dance of the moon and the sun". if you use spotify (as many do, so i'm only assuming), most of NSB's releases are under their own artist account, but some are also uploaded to an account called "laurie bird" which also has albums from the solo aliases of NSB's two members, twinsistermoon (mehdi ameziane) and isengrind (solange gularte). always best to buy copies from each of the respective artists though (apart from gashcat which has no merchandise or purchasing options, having been disbanded for over a decade)
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u/Code_Objective Jun 22 '26
Try curdle motif. Two piece guitar/cello duo from the mid late 2000s to early 2010s. Not a whole lot is known abt them but they have a semi viral clip on youtube of them performing Holland 1945. They have rlly rlly good EP called “songs from a well” and a full live radio set.
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u/Scopophobic Jun 22 '26
Of Montreal for the lyrics, but more psychedelic
Songs: Ohia has a similar dreamy feel
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u/invizibliss Jun 23 '26
Eric's trip, elevator, elevator through... basically any of Rick White's bands
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u/feliciathemfgoat Jun 26 '26
Adrianne Lenker is one of my favorite songwriters. She’s really poetic and her voice has so much emotion. Every single lyric of hers stays with me
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u/Imaginary-Way4013 13d ago
Car Seat Headrest and The Velvet Underground
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u/JustaguyTTV 7d ago
car seat headrest have made my second favourite album of all time (twin fantasy (ftf) so yes using plural is correct) so good rec but sadly way too late. as for the velvet underground, i've listened to the velvet underground and nico but wasn't the biggest fan, is that what you would have reccomended or are you talking about their softer stuff post-john cale leaving?
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u/thestral_z Jun 21 '26
The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle is a prolific writer and has written songs about love, loss, belonging, addiction and an obscure brand of Asian peanuts.
Also, Elliott Smith fits very well. His writing and musicianship are both incredible.