Album Club is a semi-regular thing where we talk about an album which has influenced us, is important to us, or one that we simply enjoy listening to. It’s like a book club, but with albums. This week it’s my choice: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, by Neutral Milk Hotel.

It’s tempting to talk about the band’s history more than the music; all I know is Jeff Mangum’s shyness in interviews and rare live performances have built up quite a mystique around his work. This album is just as inscrutable; there seems to be a narrative tying the whole thing together, a strange, cheese-dream version of the Anne Frank story as performed by a cast of ghosts, circus freaks and aborted foetuses. But it’s hard to make out.

You get the feeling Mangum is passing on some great wisdom – the meaning of life, the universe and everything, accompanied by a fuzzed-out acoustic guitar and a trumpet – if only you could understand what the hell he’s on about…

Listen on Spotify, Last.fm, Deezer, or buy it from a shop.