In the Aeroplane over the Sea

Look, I'm usually not late to these kinds of things. I'm usually pretty on-top of it and I'm kinda proud of it.

But fuck I'm so late to this: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is a fucking great album. No duh.
Just picked it up and I've listened to it all week. Haven't felt this great about an indie-rock album since The Crane Wife (that's kinda funny, huh?) and just when I thought there weren't any bands I can put stake in, I find out they've been in hiatus for like almost 15 years. Fuck. For now, I guess I'll just bask in the glory of my favorite set of songs on the album: "Ghost" leading into the untitled track. Uh, I don't really think you can get much more glorious than that massive bagpipe-playing. And it's kind of a wildcard of an album. It's indie-rock, with a lot of emphasis on baroque folk... but then you have really loud, noisy pop songs as well? What a weird record! By weird I mean totally great of course!

With a record like this, you can totally see this as sort of a milestone for modern indie-rock. And come to think of it, I can't really imagine how people reacted to this record back in 1998. It just sounds so ahead of its time. I listen to it now and it can easily have come out last month and still be like the best thing anyone has ever heard.