"She was more like a beauty queen, from a movie scene..."

Today, a special "25th anniversary" edition of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was released. Even though it is the bestselling album of all time (by a substantial margin), you can bet that people will still flock in droves to the stores to buy the newly remastered, Kanye/Akon/Fergie-remixed version. That's fine - "Billie Jean" is one of the greatest songs ever, no question, and the majority of the music on my iPod that has come out since "Thriller" was released would not exist if it hadn't been.

However, an even greater majority of the music on my iPod would not exist without an album by Neutral Milk Hotel called "In the Aeroplane Over The Sea." It's one of my favorite records of all time, and today is the 10th anniversary of its release.

I won't spend time gushing over it, because that's time and space I don't have at the moment. Maybe Lindsay and I will dedicate a week to them in the future. For now, you can click here for a cool Pitchfork article and interviews with Of Montreal, Cursive, and more on the album's influence and general awesomeness.

Here's my favorite song, even though it was very hard to pick just one. We would share the whole album, but we think that experiencing music as good as this for the first time should be a very personal thing. If you've never heard them, give this song a shot and buy the album for yourself. Let the music have it's way with you. It will change your life. I promise!

Holland 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel

In closing, if I may quote Sir Michael...the kid is not my son. Word.

 -Phil