Father John Misty – God’s Favourite Costumer
by Raquel Pinheiro
Father John Misty’s fourth album, God’s Favourite
Costumer sees Josh Tillman carefully crafting ten songs full of
self-deprecation, wit, madness, addiction with a nod to religious themes.
The former Fleet Foxes
drummer captures his struggles with mental illness drugs and alcool, highlited in
Mr. Tillman “And
oh, just a reminder about our policy/Don’t leave your mattress in the rain if
you sleep on the balcony… Mr. Tillman for the seventh time we have no knowledge
of a film that is being shot/outside Those aren't extras in a movie, they're
our clientele/No, they aren’t running lines and they aren’t exactly thrilled/Would
you like a regalo on the patio?/ Is there someone we can call? Perhaps you
shouldn’t drink alone?”in God’s Favourite
Customer: “Another night on the straight/All bug-eyed and babbling/Out
on the corner of 7th and A/“I’m in the business of living”/Yeah, that’s
something I’d say/All I need is a new friend/I’m only five blocks away…” and
also in The Palace “It’s only been three weeks and a bag of speed from Jamie
the PhD/She comes by the front desk to leave my transcript with her edits”
There is also space for a broken heart to pour out
its hurt as in Just Dumb Enough
To Try and Please Don’t Die. God’s Favourite Costumer has a fuller, but
less intricate sound than I Love You Honeybear (2015), is more grandiose than Pure
Comedy (2017), the songs’ orchestration and arrangements resembling, those of
Fear Fun (2012). Father John Misty, the larger than life, excessive, womanizer,
always on the verge of breaking, with death and grandeur looming close character
invented by Tillman shines through the small stories told in God’s Favourite
Costumer (no doubt Misty, if not the best costumer of The Almighty, is certainly
one of the best. One has to wonder how, after four tales of his life the man is
still alive.) and merges itself with Tillman’s real persona.
Personally, God’s Favourite Costumer ranks up there
with Fear Fun, making it a favourite.
God’s Favourite Costumer is
released June 1. Father John Misty is currently touring Europe:
May: 28-30: Vicar Street, Dublin (ie)
June: 01:
Primavera Sound, Barcelona (sp)
02:
This is Not A Love Song Festival, Nimes (fr)
03: We Love Green Festival, Paris (fr)
05: Palladium, Warsaw (pl)
07:
Primavera Sound Festival, Porto (pt)
08: NorthSide
Festival, Aarhus (dk)
10: Best Kept Secret Festival, Hilvarenbeek
(nl)
12: Sentrum
Scene, Oslo (no)
14: Bergenfest,
Bergen (no)
(Bella Union/PIAS – UK/Europe; Sup Pop- rest of the
world)
