Holland, 1945
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“Holland, 1945”
Single by Neutral Milk Hotel
Album	In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Released	February 8, 1998 (album) October 13, 1998 (single)
Recorded	July - September 1997 Pet Sounds Studio - Denver, Colorado
Genre	Indie rock, indie pop
Label	Blue Rose, Orange Twin
Writer	Jeff Mangum
Composer	Jeff Mangum
Producer	Robert Schneider
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea track listing
"The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One" "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts. Two & Three" "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" "Two-Headed Boy" "The Fool" "Holland, 1945" "Communist Daughter" "Oh Comely" "Ghost" (Untitled) "Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two"

"Holland, 1945" is the sixth track from the 1998 Neutral Milk Hotel album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. It was released as a single in October 1998.

The song contains references to Anne Frank. 1945 was the year that World War II ended and that Frank and her sister Margot died of typhus. The lyric "all when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes" could be seen as a reference to the White Rose resistance group that existed in Nazi-Germany in the early 1940s, though songwriter Jeff Mangum claims that he had never heard of the movement before In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released.^[1]

Also referenced in the song is a "dark brother wrapped in white". In the liner notes for the song, Mangum initialed the letters "(h.p.)" after the words "your dark brother". A critic of the Boston Phoenix wrote in 1998 that this "dark brother" was someone who committed suicide, a family member of one of Mangum's close friends.^[2][1]

Musically, "Holland, 1945" is one of the album's louder, more upbeat songs, featuring overdriven and distorted guitars. The song also showcases fuzz noise on all of the instruments, a quality created by producer Robert Schneider.

The song was one of the last to be written for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and remained untitled until art director Chris Bilheimer asked Mangum what to title the song in the liner notes for the album. Mangum told him to use either "Holland" or "1945" and Bilheimer suggested simply combining the two.^[1]

As of April 2008, "Holland, 1945" is number two on Rate Your Music's Top Singles of the 1990's, behind only Radiohead's "Paranoid Android."

Single

The single version of "Holland, 1945" was released in October 1998. It was the second single released by the band,^{citation needed} and has since become the band's last official release before entering an indefinite hiatus. Hand-numbered stickers were affixed to the plastic sleeve that house the vinyl, and numbers as high as #1053 have been discovered.^{citation needed} Orange Twin Records released some un-numbered versions through its website. A rare promo CD was released in October 19, 1998, presumably for radio airplay.^{citation needed}

The single contains the b-side track "Engine", which was recorded live in a London Underground station underneath Piccadilly Circus.^{citation needed}

Tracklisting

1. "Holland, 1945" - 3:14
2. "Engine" - 3:13

Samples

References