Neutral Milk Hotel‘s explosive 1996 debut.

Jeff Mangum’s songs are cryptic and crazed, his ideas fast and furious, and together they force the home-recording concept out of the basement and into a brave new world, a fuzzy masterpiece of experimental lo-fi recording.

Full of rapid-fire wordplay with true and heartfelt experimentation, both ambitious and eclectic, it’s not hard to see why this has been such an influential album.