ITAOTS is not an easy album to love, but it's possible. I'm nowhere near GRETEST ALBVUMM EVERR level, but yeah, I'm really fond of it.
As for explaining, what can I say? I think Jeff Mangum was one hell of a songwriter and he knocked out some wonderful songs for that album, particularly during its first half. His delivery rivals that of a young Bob Dylan (I'm comparing the two in terms of passion overcoming lack of "good" singing, so no one piss themselves thinking that I said NMH is on the same plane as Dylan) and so what if the album wasn't "recorded very well." The songs themselves are very simple in structure and instrumentation, so they didn't need the highest fidelity.