#24 on the 2024 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 08, 2025 by Royal Stuart in 2024, Top 31

I’m ready to accept the reality of my situation: I am an unbelieving, reluctant Father John Misty fan. At 12+ years into my fandom, I’m confident this outlook will never change. I have a pattern for each of his releases. Step 1 is surprise: “Oh, I guess FJM is still producing music.” Step 2 is reluctance: “OK, I’ll give it a listen, but this won’t be as good as his past work.” Step 3 is acceptance: “Yep, it sounds like an FJM album, but I’m not really feeling it. Good background music I guess.” Step 4 is back to surprise: “Wow, ok, the FJM record from this year is a great record.” Mahashmashana, Josh Tillman’s sixth Father John Misty record, is no different – it is, unbelievably, another great record.

I don’t think my reluctance to expect greatness from FJM is solely my fault. Everything about Tillman’s alter ego is an intentional joke, taking the piss of the entire indie rock star genre. From his name (seriously, “Father John Misty,” really?), to his sultry, make-ladies-throw-their-panties-on-stage crooner stage presence, Tillman is clearly having a ton of fun. These aren’t laugh-out-loud jokes – they’re knowing winks that are easy to pick up if you’re paying even the mildest amount of attention. And I’m — gulp — very much here for it.

All six of Tillman’s Father John Misty albums have been on the Top 31:

Fear Fun: #14 in 2012
I Love You, Honeybear: #6 in 2015
Pure Comedy: #15 in 2017
God's Favorite Customer: #26 in 2018
Chloë and the Next 20th Century: #9 in 2022

I won’t be able to give you a ranking of the albums – put any one of them on, and you’ll have the same, pleasant experience. It takes about five complete listens of any FJM album to start really appreciating the individual songs. “Screamland,” featured above, is a unique video of a great song. The video is formatted for vertical phone viewing, like a 6+ minute Tik Tok movie. Tillman has a couple other videos out, for songs “She Cleans Up” and “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose,” and watching all three videos back-to-back will give you a good sense of the depth of this album, and really what Father John Misty is capable of across the board.

One other video I’d like to direct your attention to is “Real Love Baby,” which only came out this year, despite the non-album single having been released back in 2016. The song was originally written by Tillman for Lady Gaga, but according to Wikipedia he became enamored with it so much he ended up keeping it for himself. The groundbreaking video takes the happy song to an over-the-top explosion of joy, making this my nominee for top feel-good song of 2024. Watch the video – featuring a collection of Tik Tok dancers who were not originally dancing to FJM’s song, but happened to be hitting the right beat, so are repurposed to appear as though people from all walks of life are all enjoying the same FJM song.

According to Pitchfork, Mahashmashana is an anglicization of mahāśmaśāna, the Sanskrit word for “cremation ground”: the burning wasteland before the next life. While it feels to me like Father John Misty hasn’t really changed (or needed to change) much over the last 12 years, that title makes me feel like Tillman believes he’s changed. He did become a father between the creation of this album and the previous album, Chlöe, and while this album doesn’t gush about fatherhood, maybe that is the change Tillman is speaking to. Only time will tell, and likely another album that I reluctantly listen to, begin to enjoy, and eventually love, to determine whether he’s made any noticeable change. For now, we have six albums that are each great in their own right. There is no denying, Tillman is one of the best, and Mahashmashana fits right in.

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#9 on the 2022 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 23, 2023 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Chloë and the Next 20th Century by Father John Misty

Josh Tillman is back on track. I suppose it’s hard to say he was ever off track, as all four of his Father John Misty albums have appeared on the Top 31 (#14 in 2012, #6 in 2015, #15 in 2017, and #26 in 2019). But as you can see in that string of great albums, the quality of his output and his placement in the Top 31 had been declining since his high point, I Love You, Honeybear, in 2015. I’m happy to report that Chloë and the Next 20th Century, Tillman’s fifth album as Father John Misty, is as good if not better than Honeybear.

This album has Tillman’s FJM crooner firing on all cylinders. Backed by full orchestration, including horns and strings, he takes us to an era that predates indie rock, and really any kind of rock, back to the 50s, Chet Baker bid band era. This is exactly where Father John Misty should have been all along.

I had the immense pleasure of seeing FJM at THING, the annual Pacific Northwest music festival held at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, WA. There were a lot of high points at the festival, but FJM was the highest. He played on the medium-sized stage on the first night. Unlike most festival acts, he had risers and props that made his stage presence match the lounge-act songs he was going to perform. He must have had ten or so guys on stage with him, horns and keyboards and a stand-up bass. And he moved eloquently about the stage between and around the other players, playfully eyeing the crowd and engaging in humorous banter.

Up to that point, I hadn’t loved Chloë. I can safely say because of that performance, my opinion of the album changed for the positive. My wife claims this album to be boring and sleepy, to which I retort “You didn’t see him live at Thing.” The influence a live performance can have on the listener’s opinions – both positive and negative – is a real phenomenon, and my love of FJM is testament to that experience.

Per usual, Tillman loves the visual side of music. Take a look at the above video, for the more upbeat song “Goodbye Mr. Blue.” Other Chloë songs that have been made into videos include:

“Kiss Me (I Loved You)”
“Buddy’s Rendezvous,” along with a non-album version of the same song sung by Lana Del Ray
“Q4” as the credits to a fictional movie from the 50s of the same name
“Funny Girl”

If you’ve liked FJM in the past, now is not the time to pull away. Tillman has brought us back into the fold with Chloë, and I hope he finds a way to keep us there long term.

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10. Big Time by Angel Olsen
11. Ants From Up There by Black Country, New Road
12. Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky by Porridge Radio
13. I Walked with You a Ways by Plains
14. The Last Goodbye by Odesza
15. A Light for Attracting Attention by The Smile
16. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar
17. Inside Problems by Andrew Bird
18. Laurel Hell by Mitski
19. Full Moon Project by Phosphorescent
20. Skinty Fia by Fontaines D.C.
21. I Love You Jennifer B by Jockstrap
22. Too Much to Ask by Cheekface
23. Dripfield by Goose
24. Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You by Big Thief
25. And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow by Weyes Blood
26. NOT TiGHT by DOMi & JD BECK
27. Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain
28. Live at KEXP, vol. 10 by Various Artists
29. All You Need Is Time by Daisy the Great
30. Cool It Down by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
31. CAPRISONGS by FKA twigs

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#19 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Pearly Gate Music

January 13, 2022 by Royal Stuart in Top 31

Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music

Zach Tillman is playing the long game. His debut album, titled with his chosen nom de plume, Pearly Gate Music, came out in 2010 on my favorite record label, Barsuk Records. The years that followed were filled with anxiety and substance abuse, restricting his ability to produce a follow up that met the standards he’d set for himself. It can’t help being overshadowed by his wildly successful musical older brother Josh, otherwise known as Father John Misty, whose last four albums have all appeared on the Bacon Top 31.

And yet, all the pressure Zach put on himself has paid off, because Mainly Gestalt Pornography, his 11-years-in-the-making sophomore record, is fantastic. Don’t expect it to sound like FJM; Pearly Gate Music is 100% his own. His voice is low, his music slow. He lags slightly behind the beat, like a male Courtney Barnett. The music on Pornography is filled with psychedelic moments, unexpected sounds emanating from feedback loops and Tillman’s voice run through multiple filters.

I’m so glad to have found a new love on Barsuk. Time was, it felt like half the albums I listened to were represented by the storied Seattle label. The Long Winters. Death Cab. Menomena. Mates of State. Jesse Sykes. John Vanderslice. They have a fantastic history for an indie label. And it continues, here, with the 2nd album from Pearly Gate Music.

Enjoy the great song shown in the video above, for his song “The Moon.” There’s a 2nd video available from the album as well, for his song “I Was A Wand’rer.” That should be enough of a toe in the water to get you to pull the trigger. This is a great album, and I can only hope that Tillman takes half or even a quarter as long to create his third album. I’ll be waiting.

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20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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#26 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Father John Misty

January 06, 2019 by Royal Stuart

God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty

As the Bacon Top 31 is now in its tenth year, nearly every artist featured in the list has been discussed in previous years. Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, has been talked about directly (#14 in 2012, #6 in 2015, and #15 last year) and indirectly (Fleet Foxes at #9 in 2011, on whose album he was the drummer) for nearly the entire run of the Top 31. Throughout that time, Tillman, 37, has built up an ironic and iconic persona for himself that allows him a certain freewheeling stature in music, not unlike Dylan. But whereas Dylan had a straightforward-to-a-fault attack on the industry he was thriving in, Tillman’s Misty character is continually self- and industry-reflective, turning his hatred of the world inward and beating himself up for us all to see.

I really enjoyed what Tillman was doing with the Misty character on I Love You, Honeybear three years ago. With last year’s Pure Comedy things started to point downward, with Tillman’s difficult, story-driven narratives proving more and more obtuse. Now here we are with God’s Favorite Customer, and Tillman is at his worst (but still not bad, or else it wouldn’t appear here at all). Where Tillman’s previous Misty albums brought with them a level of humor and irony that made them stand out, God’s Favorite Customer lacks humor, and reveals more of (and drowns us in) Tillman’s neuroses.

Be that as it may, the music is still great, and well worth listening to if you’ve been a fan in the past. Where things continue to shine for Tillman is the visual representation of the music. The above video, for the song “Mr. Tillman” is dark in its self-exploration, and fascinatingly so. This song is the highlight of the album for me, and I’m glad the video works so well. Part of that is due to the team from the collective Little Ugly who created the video. Co-directed by Jeff Desom (co-creator of this insanely disturbing video for the band Health’s “Tears”) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (who created the equally disturbing video for Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over”), these two directors are picking up the reigns dropped by video-auteur Chris Cunningham (creator of the most disturbing video of all time).

In addition to “Mr. Tillman,” four other videos have been made for the release of God’s Favorite Customer:

Beyond that, it’s also (surprisingly?) worth checking out the merch for sale on the Father John Misty site. The apparel, and the models wearing them, all tap into that particular humor / self-reflective irony that Tillman is so good at.

God’s Favorite Customer feels kinda “final” for me, in its apparent lack of humor. Maybe Tillman is growing tired of the persona, or bored. I can see the bones, but the skin he’s now living in just doesn’t have the staying power of his previous endeavors. Here’s to hoping the next one gets him (and us) back on track.

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27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

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2009-2017 Top 31s

#15 on the 2017 Bacon Top 31

January 17, 2018 by Royal Stuart

Pure Comedy by Father John Misty

I’ve written quite a bit about Josh Tillman’s alter ego Father John Misty a few times over the years (his debut album, Fear Fun, was #14 in 2012 and his second album I Love You, Honeybear was #6 in 2015). But it’s only on recent runs through his fantastic third album Pure Comedy that I’ve come to this opinion: Father John Misty is the millennial Elton John.

Bear with me here. Think about it: Tillman’s stage presence is wild and ironically humorous, much like Elton John but without the costumes. Tillman’s voice is quite similar to John’s, and they both use them to great effect. The music of Pure Comedy is very orchestral, similar to much of John’s work from the 80s and 90s. Are you seeing it yet?

Where Tillman differs from John is his use of thick sarcasm to paint a bleak picture of humanity. This album is mostly quiet and good for having on in the background until you start paying attention to the words. Then you realize Tillman’s world is depressing and lonely. I’m not put off by sad, depressing music — I did come of age in the 90s, after all — so this album is right up my alley.

Tillman has always had a good grasp of the visual, but he’s taken it to new heights with this album. His website takes Ed Steed’s fabulous illustrations from the album cover and animates them. The video shown above, “Total Entertainment Forever,” features Macaulay Culkin dressed up like Kurt Cobain in a demented “virtual” world. And there are a number of other videos from the album:

“Pure Comedy”
“Leaving LA”
“Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution”

There’s even a 25-minute short film called “Pure Comedy” directed by Tillman and Grant James that dismantles the Father John Misty songwriting process into a series of in-studio and LA-based imagery, a lot of which shows LA covered in raging fire — perhaps a little too prescient given the most recent spate of forest fires in the area. You can read a lot more about this album and Tillman’s process in the feature from the NY Times back when the album came out.

The song “Leaving LA” nearly killed the entire album for me. The song is over 13 minutes long, and the lilting way Tillman sings throughout the entirety of the song somehow expanded in my mind to fill the entire album, thinking he was stuck in a groove that had infected all 74 of its musical minutes. I thankfully got past it, and so can you. Give this album a listen if you haven’t already. And listen to its sad, broken stories. They paint a bleak picture that perfectly captures what 2017 felt like politically.

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16. Shake the Shudder by !!!
17. La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by La La Land
18. The Underside of Power by Algiers
19. What Now by Sylvan Esso
20. 50 Song Memoir by The Magnetic Fields
21. Plunge by Fever Ray
22. DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar
23. Capacity by Big Thief
24. The Tourist by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
25. CCFX EP by CCFX
26. Woodstock by Portugal. The Man
27. MASSEDUCTION by St. Vincent
28. On the Spot by Hot 8 Brass Band
29. A Deeper Understanding by The War on Drugs
30. Planetarium by Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, & James McAlister
31. A Moment Apart by Odesza

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2009-2016 Top 31s

#6 on the 2015 Bacon Top 31

December 26, 2015 by Royal Stuart

I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty

It took me a long time to claim I was a Father John Misty fan with a straight face. Don’t get me wrong, his music has always been great (his debut album was #14 on the 2012 Top 31). But he is clearly taking the piss of the entire indie rock music business with every move he makes. He makes me want to make excuses for everything I listen to.

Start with the name. Father John Misty is the stage name for Josh Tillman, formerly of the Fleet Foxes and many other projects, and it is clearly a put-on. Nobody picks that name and means it.

Secondly, his performance style is best described as “extreme crooner.” He prances around on stage, making love to his mic stand, throwing his head and his hips around, pointing at the audience — it’s all brilliantly funny, and makes his shows an absolute delight, but you can’t take it seriously.

Lastly, some of his lyrics are so ego-driven, so over-the-top, that it’s hard to get behind him. (Read my review of “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” from earlier this year for further explanation.)

But behind him I’ve now gotten, fully. He’s proven he’s not a flash in the pan, now with two phenomenal albums under his belt. Don’t let the song or video above sway you one way or the other. I suggest giving the album a full time through once or twice before passing judgment. It takes a little while to seep in, but once it does, you won’t want to let go.

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7. Sound & Color by Alabama Shakes
8. Another Eternity by Purity Ring
9. Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle and Sebastian
10. Return to the Moon by El Vy
11. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Lin-Manuel Miranda
12. Art Angels by Grimes
13. The Horse Comanche by Chadwick Stokes
14. Grace Love & the True Loves by Grace Love & the True Loves
15. Shake Shook Shaken by The dø
16. La Di Da Di by Battles
17. Sky City by Amason
18. What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World by The Decemberists
19. Untethered Moon by Built to Spill
20. Viet Cong by Viet Cong
21. The Magic Whip by Blur
22. Savage Hills Ballroom by Youth Lagoon
23. Not Real by Stealing Sheep
24. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats
25. Gliss Riffer by Dan Deacon
26. Dark Bird is Home by The Tallest Man on Earth
27. Gunnera by Pfarmers
28. Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair by Ricked Wickey
29. To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
30. Live in Seattle by Moufang / Czamanski
31. High by Royal Headache

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Father John Misty — The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment

September 23, 2015 by Royal Stuart

Nobody does tongue-in-cheek snark quite like Josh Tillman. It starts with his stage name, Father John Misty, which everyone can agree is so ridiculous it’s funny. His live show is 100% camp, strutting around the stage like an over-acted lounge singer, full of swoon-inducing goading and exaggerated emotion. And then there’s his songs. Musically, they’re fairly straightforward indie-folk-rock standards. But once you start hearing the lyrics, the snark comes out. He has a general hatred for anything and everything around him. He doesn’t pull any punches, and that’s a lot of the reason why I like him so much.

For instance, yesterday, with Ryan Adams’s attention-grabbing release of his cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989, Tillman took Adams to task, releasing a couple of covers of Taylor Swift himself, billed as covers of Ryan Adams’s covers, but resembling nothing of the Ryan Adams versions, and everything of what it would sound like if Lou Reed had covered Taylor Swift. Confused yet? You can listen here, even though Tillman himself has removed his covers from where he originally posted them.

Now that you‘ve got the back story, listen to the song above, “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment,” from Tillman’s February 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear. The album is pretty great all around, as good as 2012’s Fear Fun. The lyrices of this song are particularly snarky, and my favorite line on the entire album comes 30 seconds into the song, when Tillman sings

She says, like literally, music is the air she breathes
And the malaprops make me want to fucking scream
I wonder if she even knows what that word means
Well, it's literally not that

The of the song is full of gems just like that. Give it a listen, then buy the album. You won’t regret it.

December 18, 2012 by Royal Stuart

#14 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Fear Fun by Father John Misty

Sometimes not starting out on center stage is a good thing. Dave Grohl, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Collins (sorta) — all of these guys started out as second fiddle, only to reach great acclaim as a solo artist by coming out from behind the shadow of their lead singers.

Josh Tillman, known as “J. Tillman” in fave-of-the-Bacon-Review Fleet Foxes, is working on his own claim to fame. After coming out with a couple of solo albums before his stint in the Foxes, to little notice, Tillman has rebranded himself Father John Misty. And as silly as that name is, it’s turning out to be a brilliant move.

Having seen the Foxes a few times, I’ve gotten to see Tillman’s sense of humor via the between-song banter. The guy is damn funny. So I have to assume that the new moniker is intentionally ridiculous. I will not try to defend it. But the music Tillman has produced under the new moniker is worlds above anything prior.

About the only thing Tillman brings over from the Foxes (with whom he wrote very little) is reverb. You won’t find any 5-man harmonies here. What you get is a traditional folk-rock album with a little southern twang thrown in, making the whole thing feel as if it belongs in a different era.

But then you listen to it a few times, you start to learn the lyrics and are struck by how dark the album is. Tillman must be haunted by some pretty evil demons. Watch the above video, for “Nancy From Now On.” There’s a dominatrix, some uncomfortableness, and even a physical manifestation of Tillman leaving the past behind, in the form of his locks being sheared off.

And if the video above doesn’t make you cringe enough, you can check out the other two videos from Fear Fun, each of which presents the dark lyrics from Tillman’s songs in a visually arresting manner. There’s the lovely Aubrey Plaza, acting our her aggressions, only to be thrown into the back of a “child molester” van by a barefoot Tillman for the song “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.” Or the hyper-violent video for “This Is Sally Hatchet,” in which Josh, his finger gushing blood from an apparent shotgun wound, cuts that finger off with a pizza cutter. Good times.

Overall, this album feels like only a beginning. Tillman is going to be making music for a long time, and he’s just getting started. Get in on the ground floor.

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15. Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent
16. To The Treetops! by Team Me
17. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
18. There’s No Leaving Now by The Tallest Man On Earth
19. Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats
20. A Church That Fits Our Needs by Lost In The Trees
21. Hospitality by Hospitality
22. Free Dimensional by Diamond Rings 23. History Speaks by Deep Sea Diver
24. A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic
25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

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2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
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2009 Musical Bacon Calendar