Skip to main content

Father John Misty - God's Favorite Customer (Sub Pop, 2018)

Almost everything Josh Tillman says or does annoys me, and after being beaten over the head with it so many times I finally gave in and listened to Pure Comedy last year, and it wasn't that bad. There were some good tunes, good lyrics, good ideas on it even though overall it's Not Really My Thing. I can't take Tillman's irony-bathed in honesty-bathed in irony shtick and even the "Funny Lyrics" that most Serious Rock Journalists jack themselves off into a frenzy over (omg he made a Taylor Swift joke!!!) make me want to roll my eyes into the back of my head. But the man can sing, and play guitar, and turn a phrase and write a good song or two so here we are with God's Favorite Customer - I don't know if it's the New FJM Album or just an in-between. Compared to the sprawling Pure Comedy it feels very lite indeed - under 40 minutes and the longest song clocking in at a tidy 5:22. But honestly this did less for me than Pure Comedy. If it's not lite it feels like - a little half-baked, well produced but no grand ideas that couldn't have stayed in the hopper until Tillman came up with a few better songs and made this a bigger statement. My other thing is, when do people listen to Father John Misty albums? What moods do you have to be in to put one of these on? Some kind of sardonic, half-hip, drinking a coffee and browsing the internet kind of mood? Who am I to talk I'll listen to an album of radiator hum. I'm doubling down this year on self-important jerks and grabbing the new Mark Kozelek - I've never heard a note of his music or anything from Sun Kil Moon beyond the name but at least my man Mark has the courage to be insipid and self-absorbed without the crutch of irony like the Good Father. I hope I love/hate it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nachtmystium/Leviathan - In the Valley of Death, Where Black Metal is King: An Homage to the Roots (Ascension Monuments Media, 2018)

What the fuck is that title. Okay I get the first part is a Judas Iscariot tribute, but did we really need "an homage to the roots" in there? Hey wouldn't it be funny if these were actually covers of the band The Roots? Anyway. This album was supposed to come out 10 years ago, but it was blocked by the bands' respective labels. Now I guess they've figured out a way, or Blake Judd needs money for drugs so he's figured out a way, to put this out. The Bandcamp version has 8 tracks, 5 from Nachtmystium and 3 from Leviathan, but I've seen a 10-track tracklisting elsewhere. On the version I have, we have Nachtmystium covering Judas Iscariot, Ildjarn (twice), Von and Burzum. Leviathan tackles Ildjarn (twice) and Von once. I seem to be missing Leviathan's Judas Iscariot cover ("Where the Winter Beats Incessant") and one of Nachtmystium's Von covers ("Von"). Weird. Wonder if there were some licensing issues or something. All four Ildjar...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunburned Hand of the Man - Get Wet with the Animal (Manhand, 2018)

I keep up with Sunburned only intermittently these days, they seem to be taking a more rock-ist approach lately. Like this one. Each track is about 4-5 minutes of pretty ramshackle, jammy, funky, boogie rock...almost spoiled by the throaty, beery vocals shouted over the top of each one of these tunes with nonsensical platitudes. I almost shut it off after a couple tracks but I stuck it out and kinda came around on some level. I was oddly reminded of My War era Black Flag sludge punk. The band sez "these Holy Grail fueled recordings are a mix of iphone and zoom recordings run through garageband, reaper and some plug-ins. We're still working on the much more listener-friendly Black Dirt session..." and point taken, listener friendly this ain't.
Post a Comment
Read more

Thou - Inconsolable (Community, 2018)

Thou have taken a lot of departures from being the doom metal band they're Supposed to Be, and Inconsolable may be the wildest departure yet. It's an all-acoustic EP, the 2nd of three leading up to their new full-length Magus later this year, and supposedly inspired by Nirvana's MTV Unplugged album. Vocalist Bryan Funck is absent - rather, he's written the lyrics and given them over to a cast of women to sing in his stead. The Nirvana album was evoked only intermittently with me - the first track, "The Unspeakable Oath", sounded more like Mogwai and I was preparing myself for a really interesting album. The rest of the album scores only so-so for me. Like "The Unspeakable Oath", "Come Home, You Are Missed" has a downtempo Thou feel (remarkable given there's no metal to be found here) and sonically could slot alongside Nirvana, Alice in Chains, or similar downtrodden alt/metal fare. "The Hammer" is a longer, more prog-ish piec...
Post a Comment
Read more