10 Greatest Lo-Fi Albums Of All Time

The fuzzier, noisier sibling of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea sees Jeff Mangum and co. draping their jagged pop songs with a range of keys, marching bands, and greatly distorted guitar work. The songwriting abilities of their greatest work is already set in place with On Avery Island, but their more tangential approach to instrumentation is highlighted on this record with songs such as "You've Passed" and the 14-minute freakout of "Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey's Eye."

The emotional "Song Against Sex" kicks off the album with a cavalcade of unsettling imagery. Mangum's propensity for an immediate, visceral reaction is all over this record from the very beginning. Seeking of sex without love renders a destruction that stretches across the whole album. 

On Avery Island is less an album about rebirth through celebration than it is about rebirth through destruction. And it is one strange, gorgeous destruction.