Looks like NMH is the clear, if controversial, winner. I'll order it tonight and when it comes I'll post a review of it.

Let it sink in before reviewing

Agreed. Minimum of 10 listens. It took that much to grab me fully and it never let go.

I'm really glad that I bought the Neutral Milk Hotel cd. I've listened to it quite a bit since I bought it. It took me a few listens to get over the guys voice, but now I love it. By far my favorite track is In The Aeorplane over the Sea followed by Oh Comely. What's weird is that on paper this sounds like something I would hate. A concept album about Ann Frank which features mostly acoustic guitar and a singer with what many would consider a bad voice. There is some X factor at play that makes it almost sublime.

I bought the Drive By Truckers from the list last week. I'm liking it a lot. Before I bought Southern Rock Opera the only DBT I had was A Blessing and A Curse. I am surprised at how different they are, Southern Rock Opera sounds more Southern to me if that makes sense. Made me want to go down to Birmingham and visit all my friends there.

In the Aeroplane over the Sea is forever linked in my mind with the novel Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I believe I heard NMH for the first time while reading this book, and the mood of both works are very complimentary. Plus they both include deformed children in jars.

It definitely does and because of this it is one of my least-favorite DBT albums. Blasphemy, I know. By the time Blessing and a Curse came out, it seems everyone had been struck (and I'm guessing gotten tired of??) Jason Isbell's poppier writing style (which isn't a dig on him, at least from me, because I love his songs). Brighter Than... was a like a post-Isbell blood-letting.