Only one year after Pure Comedy,
Father John Misty releases God’s Favorite Customer.
A significantly more rocking affair, albeit
mid-tempo to slow; it crushes harder,
it’s lyrically more personal, confessional,
the melodic hooks are stronger, it’s easier
and more fun to sing along to these songs,
there’s more humor here, but as usual,
it’s pretty dark in there: “You’re all
that I have, so please don’t die,
wherever you are tonight.” Darkly
funny to the more conventionally
silly, but still tinged with pathos:
“Maybe I’ll get a pet, learn how
to take care of someone else. Maybe
I’ll name him Jeff.”
I’m especially intrigued with
tunes by Father John Misty that
include Josh Tillman’s name in
the lyrics and in the titles, a motif
we see over a few FJM albums.
Perhaps the strongest hook on this
record comes from the single titled
simply, “Mr. Tillman,” where the verses
are written in the point of view of a
hotel general manager, addressing
Tillman directly about several issues
related to his stay: he’s got outstanding
charges, he left his passport in the
mini-fridge, he’s left his mattress on
the balcony in the rain, and apparently,
Jason Isbell is here and he’s worried
about Tillman’s well-being. It’s a super
funny and interesting lyrical device
that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen another
pop star utilize. Poets, yes. Fiction writers,
yes. But not rock musicians. Just one
more aspect of Tillman’s imaginative
range that I admire a great deal. There
are some kick ass ballads on this one,
the title track, immediately followed by “The
Songwriter” on side two, again recall
the very best of vintage Elton John.
This album, I think, would be the perfect
starting point for the Father John Misty
curious.
Four years go by and a worldwide pandemic.
Hey, I know (he must have thought),
let’s make a jazz record. Songs that swing,
songs that sound like they’re coming
from a 1940’s musical, complete with
muted horns, a string section, vibes,
and a crooning vocal, singing about
a character named “Chloe,” whose
soul is a “pitch black expanse.” But let’s
add to the mix a tune that is almost
the spitting image of Harry Nilsson’s
“Everybody’s Talkin,” and we’ll close
with a long droning rant about how
this century seems like a new last century
and the only thing worth salvaging during
(what feels like) the end of times are
love songs.
Chloe and the New 20th Century is perhaps
the most fun you’ll ever have with a
Father John Misty record, not because
the lyrics are fun or funny, but because
the music is transportive in a way
that is refreshing and old, but new for FJM.
Father John Misty names his most recent
studio album Mahashmashana, a Sanskrit word
for a great cremation ground. It is his most
expansive, largest sounding record, the opening
tune for which is a nearly ten minute long
bombastic onslaught of strings and horns,
big piano, sweeping melodies, a lyric that
explores the battle between the physical
body and the ethereal nature of consciousness
or spirit, and a chorus that names our lives
as a kind of corpse dance through which
eventually human beings throw off the body.
Heady stuff. And that’s followed immediately
by one of the most rocking tunes in the
Misty oeuvre, “She Cleans Up.” And in the
tradition of songs about himself, next comes
the Madman Across The Water-eque
“Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose.”
This album is a wild ride, sonically exciting,
stylistically varied from the orchestral to
the rocking to the lounge-like,
to the disco of “I Guess Time Just Makes
Fools of Us All,” to the lullaby torch
song closer of “Summer’s Gone.” And
lyrically, these songs are as brainy as Hell.
This is what I love about him most, that
balance between the melody and the mind,
and the wild swings from the quiet to the
cacophonous. The verses in “Screamland”
lull the listener into a gentle cocoon, then
the chorus comes along to scare the piss
out of them. It’s joyous and frightening, like
what it’s like to be human. Right? Not a day
goes by when I am not at some point in
blissful gratitude for the beauty of living
and moments later terrified by some crisis
of mind, or heart, inside of this individual
meat sack or the external mess that is the
U. S. of A. in the 21st century. Joshua Tillman,
as Father John Misty, nails this sentiment
almost every single time.
Notes on the vinyl editions:
- God’s Favorite Customer, Sub Pop Records, 2018, black vinyl.
- Chloë and the Next 20th Century, Sub Pop Records, 2022, double translucent blue vinyl.
- Mahashmashana, Sub Pop Records, 2024, double white and blue swirl vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 