In 2008, Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 classic In The Aeroplane
Over the Sea came in sixth, ahead of Dark Side, Fleet Foxes and Metallica's
Death Magnetic. Guns n' Roses' Chinese Democracy on the list of Nielsen
SoundScan 2008 Top Vinyl Sellers. The enduring hype stays for 8 years and
strong, upon which the record is still highly sought after by avid collectors,
be that local or abroad , regardless of constant usage of the album as hipster mockery.
The consequence of the sudden fame of the late bloomer is
conspicuous. In 1 out of 10 tumblr powered blogs, you can see faded picturesque
pasted with “And one day we will die/ And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane
over the sea/ But for now we are young/ Let us lay in the sun/ And count every
beautiful thing we can see” snippet from the title track. But albeit all the
consequence, I couldn’t resist to continue embracing the likes of “Oh Comely”
and “Two Headed Boy Part 2”, songs that portrayed the emotionally suffocated
Mangum who confronted misfortune in all cases with steadfast endurance.
Along with the eternal hype, sometimes I questioned, is
there anyone in the local scene got enough balls to draw inspiration from Jeff
Mangum or Neutral Milk Hotel? The answer partially came several months ago
through Andra Semesta, a versatile songster under the moniker of “Green of Life”.
Green of Life is like no other. Adapting Neutral Milk Hotel
is never a piece of cake but, begged to differ, Andra, armored with naught but
a piece of acoustic guitar and avid, enthusiastic, sometimes emotional (and off-key)
vocal in his disposal, conquered the odds painstakingly by delivering his
visceral pondering in a sense of exigency, the deliverable which is
well-documented in his latest effort: “Weird Peace”.
While popular theory suggested that Mangum drew inspiration from
Anne Frank, Andra chose to draw inspiration from himself, something that he
knew well with enough drips of metaphors and allegories.
Wasting no time, He kickstarted the EP with enchanting
narration, “My Geommetry”, a failed celebration of his culturally-fulfilled peaceful
life: Feeling alone, feeling as empty as can be/ Feeling amused, by the shapes
of my geometry/ People would help me, but I just built that wall by myself /
People would care about me, but I just built it cause I felt that I must/
Feeling so strange, feeling as zany as can be/ Feeling ashamed by the truths in
my reality/ People would let me be free, but I just made some rules to hold me
in/ People would let me be free but I just locked the door and keep myself in.
But the “Weird Peace” he had found didn’t seem enough in the battle with his
shameful ugly reality, hence the need for “one more person for that place to be
complete. Even books and music won’t be able to complete him because those
remind him that his significant other (“The Key”) is always in his mind. A slap
for the “single and proud” pennant-carrying chaps.
But his agenda is not merely to slap.
The idiosyncratic vocal arrangement in the angst-ridden and
tumultuously-assembled, “People Like Us”, oddly enough, substantiated the idea
upon which the song is assembled: rage and doubt. Amidst the curse to: “That
priest who is spreading your love but in turn left his lover to rot in the dark/
preacher, preaching his war”, he begged to: “People like him not to leave him”
and “the hand that guide him to never untie”, all delivered in an inspired mix
of Pavement, Mangum and enough dose of emotion.
The EP is at its strongest at the moments that show off
Andra’s songwriting per se: the witty-wandering “The Crossing Song” and the
retrospective “My Family”.
“The Crossing Song” is a charming wit, an enticing remedy to
recuperate oneself from one’s predicament. A sympathetic pat to one’s back. I’ve
been playing the song for hundred times for my self-referential meditation and
it never fails.
And if Neutral Milk Hotel renowned for the whole chapter of their
“King of Carrot Flowers” and “Two Headed Boy”, Green of Life will surely be
celebrated for “My Family”. The song which is a heavenly beautiful observatory
narration upon which the beauty is sabotaged by daunting punchline: “And at the
end of the day I’ll just be glad that they’ll always stick for me/ And the rest
of my life I would be blessed if they do believe in me”.
Garnering international attention, Green of Life is yet to gain any local momentum but as (self-proclaimed) one of the people “like” him, I wish and pray
that adequate exposure is imminent.
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