Father John Misty - New Album, God's Favorite Customer (June 1, 2018)

Already!? Man alive, technology is a wonderful thing.

 

Only one day after the announcement! I guess he has a history of botched album releases.

 

Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer

UK site. The limited edition is currently available.

 

Pure Comedy was easily my favourite and most played album of last year. Very rarely do i pay attention to lyrics but i actually learnt all of the title song.

 

On first listen I'm a little underwhelmed. Neither the grandiosity of "Pure Comedy" nor the catchiness of "I Love You, Honeybear"

 

Underwhelmed is the word that came to mind as well. PC was a letdown for me after Honeybear, which I consider the best album made between 1970 and now. This is certainly more varied than PC, which I like, and the lyrics are of a more personal nature, which I like, but its missing really good songs and better production choices.

For instance, Mr Tillman is a serviceable song, but why the distracting audio bites placed here and there, and bits of discordant guitar? Dissapointing Diamonds is one of the better songs here, with nice falsetto, but why does the vocal have to be slathered in that distortion chain effect and pushed back? Why do there have to be those SNL horns at the end, similar to Total Entertainment Forever?

There are less piano ballads here, but still one or two too many I think. Lots of Lennon and Elton influence. Honeybear has a waltz followed by mariachi pop followed by techno followed by canyon folk rock (not that I like the techno, but you get the point). Here. it's either a ballad or a grungy distorted "alt indie sound" thing.

Please Don't Die is the highlight of this record. It's sincere and touching, with a classic country backing and Tillman singing at his best.

I keep hoping for another Honeybear, but maybe it will never come, maybe I should just be happy that record exists and whatever else comes our way is just a bonus.

And this album is STILL better than most of what I've heard this year!

 

Production's on point IMO. Agreed that the songs aren't interesting enough again. This will get more spins from me than Pure Comedy.

 

I couldn’t wait. Preordered the Loser edition last night and grabbed the leak. First play and I love it. Dumb Enough to Try especially. To me it’s a logical progression from honeybear and comedy, not as epic and sprawling, but his voice, and the arrangements so it’s not just all sad sack at the piano. The first three albums were mostly growers for me except the one or two immediate hits. So I expect this to be the same. But it hit the spot this morning.

 

This Father John Misty dude has yet to impress me. (And that's what he's here for, no?)

I'd welcome any opinions on his best/most accessible material. Some tunes that can give me an entree into the Mist, as it were. I'm not afraid of the Weird. I'm typically a harder sell when it comes to the Cute- the facile, the fatuous, anything that's too clever by half.

 

Not everybody has to like everything and he isn't for you.

 

I'm not sure how you can know this, since I'm not sure that it's the case myself.

I've heard, like, three songs by the guy (one of them a Dylan cover, that didn't grab me on first audition.) My solicitation of recommendations of FJ Misty's best work was sincerely intended.

 

I would start with his 2nd album I Love You Honeybear and go from there. That's the one that seemed to draw a lot of people into his music.

 

For what it's worth, "The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt." was the tune that hooked me in.

 

‘Chateau lobby’ for me. Romantic and world hating and then that sweeping trumpet line. “I’ve never hated the same things as somebody else”. Great lyrics great voice and I love the arrangement.

 

I'd highly recommend the song, The Night Josh Tillman Came to our Apt. Some really stunning lyrics.
I find it interesting that the line, "the facile, the fatuous, anything that's too clever by half" is coming from a listener who doesn't like clever lyrics.

 

I was obsessed with that one too. ‘We’re still pretty good at eating on the run’

 

He is a singer-songwriter who writes and performs entirely in character, and that's a huge part of the concept.

Surely that runs afoul of your "too clever by hslf' caveat.

He is not for you.

 

I heard Honey Bear first, and while I was impressed, I didn’t immediately take strongly to it. What really hooked me on FJM was watching his live performances on YouTube. The guy’s a natural performer and really brings the best out of his songs live. I’d say most of his recorded output peaks at around an 8/10, but live on stage, a solid 10.

The day he releases a proper live album will be a great day indeed.

 

I didn't say I'd reject an artist's work out of hand on that basis; I said that I find music with those qualities harder to get into. I find it to be an impediment, not a deal-breaker.

As for adopting a persona, there are lots of ways to do that. Most people who step onto a stage do that, to some extent. Or it happens to them, in some mysterious way.

 

There's a difference between a clever lyric and a lyric that's too clever by half- at least for me there is.

Elvis Costello's "New Amsterdam" has a clever lyric.

"Those Were The Days" by Cream has a lyric that's too clever by half.

So does a different song with the same title, by Mary Hopkin. For different reasons.

 

He definitely plays up the pretentious hipster doofus a bit but I wouldn’t say “performs entirely in character”. The lyrics on honeybear or the new album or something like Smoochie - he really is a world weary romantic. He really did get married lightning fast to Emma like he writes in his songs. He also finds himself in a wtf world. I can relate to both halves. It’s not like he’s doing a Chris Gaines.

 

Yeah, but that's all part of the concept, especially on Pure Comedy (especially especially in the album's liner notes, which may be my favorite part of that album, which I don't love quite as much as the first two): he's deliberately blurring the lines to the point where it seems like even he's not entirely sure where JT ends and FJM begins. And when you have a deliberately ironic, distancing concept like that, you're edging into what many would consider "too clever by half."

 

Oh wow, Just Dumb Enough To Try could totally make me cry. Amazing song. I was prepared to be let down coming so soon after Pure Comedy but am loving this album!

Will buy the CD.

Who knows how to fix the files? Track 10 plays second and track 2 plays third but they're labelled correctly so what needs to be done?

 

Listened once this morning and it seems a return to form after the overlong torpor that was much of Pure Comedy. That album just went on and on and on. At a snail’s pace. And on.