Beauty (album)
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Beauty
Studio album by Neutral Milk Hotel
Released 1992 (self-released by Jeff Mangum for himself and friends)
Recorded ?
Genre Indie Rock, Experimental
Length 49:19
Label Elephant 6
Professional reviews
Beauty is a tape cassette of music released by Jeff Mangum under the Neutral Milk Hotel name in 1992. Like Invent Yourself a Shortcake, this tape was not intended for wide distribution, instead copies were likely to have been circulated amongst Jeff's friends, which is typical of many early Elephant 6-related 'albums' (there are similar early recordings by bands who would later become Marbles, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Sunshine Fix and Chocolate U.S.A. among others). The first five tracks of the tape are acoustic recordings, and feature Engine, which would later find official release on the Holland, 1945 7", and Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone, which in a faster mix would feature on On Avery Island, as well as the live favourite Sailing Through. The second half of the tape is recorded on various occasions, and three of the five tracks (Noisy Racket, Conversation With Will Cullen Hart, Hypnotic Sounds) snippets of noise or conversation (incidentally, Hypnotic Sounds would later appear on Demo 2 and the Orange Twin re-issue of the Everything Is single as Aunt Eggma Blowtorch, minus a minute-long introductory jam). The other two are full band efforts. Someone Is Waiting, a noisy feedback-drenched drone, later appeared on On Avery Island, whilst Bucket, one of the first songs the band recorded in a full recording studio (which Mangum was not entirely happy with, claiming it to be "unfinished" [1]) was played live on several occasions, and featured on 'Periscope: Another Yoyo Compilation' in the same format. Like all of the early tapes, Beauty is relatively easy to find on the internet.
Note: track 8 is commonly listed as "Conversation with Robert Schneider," but is actually between Jeff Mangum and Will Cullen Hart of The Olivia Tremor Control and The Circulatory System.
Comments: As with Invent Yourself a Shortcake, this tape predates Elephant 6, and it's debatable whether to consider it an actual "album" or just a collection of recordings Jeff put together. The first five tracks are solo acoustic with Jeff talking a little bit before and after each song, as if he's playing an acoustic show in front of people (though there appears to be only one other guy in the room). "Gardenhead" is much slower than the familiar, released version. The second half of the tape features two electric songs and three non-songs: "Noisy Racket" (an aptly named metal freak out), "Conversation with Robert Schneider" (which is not a song, but just what the title implies.. though it's actually a conversation between Jeff and Will Hart), and the sound collage track "Hypnotic Sounds" (which is the same recording as "Aunt Eggma Blowtorch" on the Everything Is single.. only here it has an extra minute-long jam at the beginning of it.)
It seems every circulating version of this tape is a bit poppy in the left channel.. sounding as if it were transferred from vinyl or something.. but it's just the one speaker that has it; the other's fine. I'm not sure if the original tapes were made that way, or if it's just a defect with the particular copy that made its way online.
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