572.1m all-time streams (15 May '26)

With a relatively slight body of recorded material and a trajectory as mysterious and uneven as their music, Neutral Milk Hotel became one of the more important and influential bands in indie rock on the strength of how unique and connective their songs were.

Centered around the songwriting of founder and key member Jeff Mangum, NMH explored faith, spirituality, sex, and mortality from skewed and unpredictable angles all their own. Mangum's simple yet bold melodic folk tunes were delivered in waves of fuzz and intensity, tempering direct delivery with otherworldly magic on the band's two studio albums, 1996's On Avery Island and 1998's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, both critically canonized and cherished by fans as essential and even life-affirming.