"Everything Is" was the first Neutral Milk Hotel single, released as a 7" in 1994, and later as a CD single.

Says Jeff, "The single was a Godsend because I was pretty much at the end of my rope with just about everything in my life at that point. I'd moved away from my home and all my friends for the first time and I was very much alone and sad. I ended up sending a tape to Nancy at Cher Doll Records and she saved me merely by saying she wanted to do a single. I just sent her a tape of what I had around at the time, some songs I'd recorded on a four-track, and she chose 'Everything Is' and 'Snow Song Pt. 1.'"

Available
Everything Is single

Live
played often throughout the band's existance

Lyrics

Jeff: Who were you?
kid: A member of KISS or a punk rocker.
Jeff: Every year?
kid: Which is kinda funny-- Yeah, I would dress up as a punk rocker. But when I was little--
Jeff: So what'd you do when you became a punk rocker?
kid: I wore a trash bag. [laughs]

Growing sleepy as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again

I'm not afraid of a love parade in my daydream
Old men with kazoos and beating drums
But I awake and I see the streets are ice cream
It's just you and me and oh dear, our life has just begun

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading

Oh beautiful smiles, won't you stay awhile
We could close the door and sleep all day
It's a September sky with pretty pictures in my mind
That's lost its feeling of so afraid

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading

Grown sleepy now as the rain falls
As children draped in flowers form a chain
They sing a song with jelly jars and bird calls
As night falls into dust and it's day again

Everything is beautiful here
It's spinning circles around my ears
I'm finally breaking free from fear
And it's fading