aaamusic | On 24, Apr 2012

Guitarist, songwriter and drummer Joshua Tillman stepped out from the Fleet Foxes. He left Seattle last summer 2011. The story tells that in a moment of depression he lived in his van for two months, ate mushrooms and wrote a novel and bunch of songs. His new moniker is Father John Misty. The songs make a whole album entitled Fear Fun, recorded in L.A. with mate Jonathan Wilson at his home-studio in Echo Park and mixed by Phil Ek (Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes) back in Seattle.
He now lives in a tree-house in Laurel Canyon with the company of lovely spiders.
Talking about his moniker Father John Misty he said: ’It’s all of me and none of me, if you can’t see that, you won’t get it’. What I call it is totally arbitrary, but I like the name. You’ve got to have a name. I never got to choose mine.” He then ironically transformed himself into a cartoon, a fantastic bearded guru hippie
Passing on to the music, this is a work of alteration, nonsense, humour, versatility. There’s an inexplicable pervert joy that tastes of darkness and decadent beauty. The album is a mix of folk and alternative country songs where he brings his voice and his music to a timeless mystic stage.
Fun Times In Babylon is the delightful album’s opener. A slow guitar introduce his voice suspended on the backing vocals
|Fun Times in Babylon |That’s what I’m counting on |
It’s a contemplation of the time passing and a desire of carpe diem before it’s too late. It’s a chant for a pilgrimage to a new phase, a new life.
The second track Nancy From Now On is a psychedelic soul sad love song directly from the past; in line with the variety of styles of this album Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings is a well constructed folk rock song, more immediate and accessible, the perfect single to launch the record. Moving on faster beats we find the joyful country song I’m Writing A Novel before sinking back into more personal and dark moments (O I Long To Feel Your Arms Around and Misty Nightmares 1 & 2). Only Son of the Ladiesman is another song that could be part of a Fleet Foxes album.
A complex and variegated album in terms of lyrics and arrangements. Perfectly engineered, with a rarefied touch of soul and funk here and there (Well, You Can Do It Without Me), his voice is astonishingly confident and evocative. It’s a full of excitement and exuberant album to listen and discover slowly in between the different levels and paths. Maybe sometimes you get the feeling someone there is self-admiring, but isn’t art necessarily narcissistic?

★★★★★

Pietro Nastasi