April 5, 2017 -- Father John Misty has gotten deliciously serious. Featured recently in our Another Groove series, the Good Father (a/k/a Josh Tillman) is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and drummer formerly of the indie rock band Fleet Foxes who has appeared on recent albums by Beyoncé and Kid Cudi. Since 2012, he has been recording as a solo artist unmoored from genre who crafts memorable melodies around lyrical constructs that either indulge his sarcastic, off-the-rails sense of humor or reveal him to be the hyper-articulate “Gentleman Poet of LA.” On his new album, Pure Comedy, set for release on April 7th, Misty’s inner Poet has largely vanquished his self-deprecating Joker to deliver the album of his career.
April 5, 2017 -- Father John Misty has gotten deliciously serious. Featured recently in our Another Groove series, the Good Father (a/k/a Josh Tillman) is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and drummer formerly of the indie rock band Fleet Foxes who has appeared on recent albums by Beyoncé and Kid Cudi. Since 2012, he has been recording as a solo artist unmoored from genre who crafts memorable melodies around lyrical constructs that either indulge his sarcastic, off-the-rails sense of humor or reveal him to be the hyper-articulate “Gentleman Poet of LA.” On his new album, Pure Comedy, set for release on April 7th, Misty’s inner Poet has largely vanquished his self-deprecating Joker to deliver the album of his career.
If you imagine music to be a multi-lane freeway, with the popular styles traveling in their respective lanes, Misty’s artistry weaves its way somewhere in between, a bit like Harry Potter’s magical Hogwart’s Express train departing from Platform 9 ¾. It’s not rock, pop, country or R&B; instead, like a painter, Misty dabs his brush in only the colors and textures he needs to serve the song, to set the mood befitting it. That said, he does favor acoustic instrumentation, slower tempos and majestic string arrangements that give this collection a certain timelessness. And Misty’s voice, richer here than ever before, consistently has a certain sincerity, purity and soulfulness, especially when he reaches up for his admirable falsetto.
We feature here two tracks, “Two Wildly Different Perspectives” and “Ballad of the Dying Man,” both wry, poetic commentaries on what ails us: the former a diatribe against the increased polarization of our liberal and conservative political ideologies, and the latter a requiem for the social-media obsessed with an inflated view of the import of their own criticism. Enjoy.
By Robb Patryk