Without Reservation

Good lord I hate having to come up with post titles. Anyway, a tentative comeback by the reclusive Jeff Mangum brings new attention to the Best Band that Rock Critics Insist You Should Like. (Chicago Trib)

But after touring behind “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” Mangum drifted away from public life. Schneider, his closest friend, was circumspect in interviews over the last decade about whether the world would ever hear from Neutral Milk Hotel again. But he firmly stated that Mangum wasn’t another rock casualty like Brian Wilson or Syd Barrett, artists who produced great work before suffering mental breakdowns. “He never fell out of touch with reality. He’s more in touch with reality than most people,” Schneider said in 2007. “Barrett and Wilson had nervous breakdowns. Jeff has not had a nervous breakdown. He’s passionately on a quest of self-discovery … He wasn’t trying to be a rock star or make a living (from playing music). He was trying to find out about himself and about the universe. He’s a very sweet, gentle and extremely creative person. The content of his thoughts are the contents of most of our dreams.”