Father John Misty
Origin: Rockville, Maryland
Top Songs: Real Love Baby, Chateau Lobby #4, Nancy From Now On
Genre: Indie Folk
Label: Sub Pop
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Josh Tillman started his music career releasing records under the name J. Tillman. He released seven records between 2003 and 2010 before joining the band Fleet Foxes as their drummer for their album Helplessness Blues. After that album, Sub Pop picked him up, and he released the album Fear Fun under a new moniker: Father John Misty. Since then, he has released three more albums: I Love You, Honeybear, Pure Comedy, and God’s Favorite Customer.
Before I sat down to write this, I decided to spend the whole day listening to Father John Misty’s last two albums. I love them both for entirely different reasons. Pure Comedy is the more daring of the two. It’s so theatrical and uses vivid imagery to describe different dystopian worlds that the human race could find themselves. Overall, Tillman outlines the various flaws of the human race while admitting that he exhibits those same flaws himself.
To the contrary, God Favorite Customer takes a more conservative approach musically. The thing I like about this album is Tillman’s introspective writing. He sings about dealing with depression and how it affects the different parts of his life. The song “Mr. Tillman” describes a real moment in his life where he spent two months living in a hotel after suffering what he called a “nervous breakdown.” During those two months, he wrote most of the album.
This is where I usually leave you with the artist’s latest single and be on my way, but today I discovered my new favorite Father John Misty song and I feel like I have to share it with you. So here’s the first song off of God’s Favorite Customer: “Hangout at the Gallows”