Father Jon Misty Embraces The L Word

A musician quitting one of indie music’s biggest bands at their peak seemed like a weird move at the time, but for former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, it seems to have paid off. Tillman recorded a slew of albums throughout his 20s, and as a way of taking himself less seriously, he created the Father John Misty character, a kind of druggy drifter-type. But while his 2012 debut, Fear Fun, in large part poked fun at his newfound L.A. lifestyle, his new album, I Love You, Honey Bear, tackles something else entirely.

What makes Father John Misty unique is that it’s impossible to remove the man from the songs, since he draws so heavily from his personality (which is ironic considering the pseudonym). Each song plays like an esoteric inside joke that’s ripped directly from the headlines of his own life, with titles like “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment” and “Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Goddamn Thirsty Crow” from Honey Bear.

If you’ve read interviews with Father John Misty, it’s hard not to notice a bit of grandiosity. He tends to mythologize his past. On the new album, he rips into a white girl for an annoying “soulful affectation” in her singing voice, but what’s that we hear in the verses of “Thirsty Crow”? And get a load of his album preview: “My ambition, aside from making an indulgent, soulful and epic sound worthy of the subject matter, was to address the sensuality of fear, the terrifying force of love, the unutterable pleasures of true intimacy, and the destruction of emotional and intellectual prisons in my own voice.”

But if you can get past the fact that this reads like some kind of cultural theory masters thesis, Honey Bear is an album of great ambition. In it, Tillman has done something that some songwriters strive for their entire lives: He’s written about falling in love in ways that are true to himself and never for a moment clichéd …  kind of like he said he would.

“Chateau Lobby 4 (in C for Two Virgins)” shows how a simple connection can have profound results: “I haven’t hated / all the same things as somebody else / since I can remember.” In “The Ideal Husband,” Misty describes the moment he falls recklessly into the abyss, and the kind of rash thinking that it usually leads to: “I showed up at seven in the morning / I said baby, I’m finally succumbing / Said something dumb like I’m tired of running / Wouldn’t I make the ideal husband?”

“I Went to the Store One Day” is a folky rumination about the chance meeting that can set the blueprint for your entire existence. He imagines the rest of his life with the girl he just met at the store, all the way until he’s on his deathbed, and perfectly illustrates how your mind can’t help but scramble toward the future when you’re with someone you love.

But it’s not all about the lovey-dovey; “Bored in the USA” is a mournful balled lamenting the lack of feeling in our consumer culture and “True Affection” is about the difficulty to connect through so many different layers of technology.

The album also made musical strides. While his first release was straight-ahead Beatles-style pop, this one proves he’s really emptying the coffers at Sub Pop with great results. It’s chock full of beautiful orchestral flourishes that add a whole new dimension. And just as with the subject matter, it seems that he’s embracing the sappier side of things.

Criticizing consumer America or questioning our reliance on technology has been done many times, but finding an original way to say how you feel about a significant other is a creative achievement. Despite his pretentions, Father John Misty has really accomplished something great with I Love You, Honeybear.