On his sophomore album, “I Love You Honeybear,” Father John Misty trades one-liners for sincerity—and achieves an album of far deeper impressions.
From the first song of his debut album, “Fear Fun,” singer-songwriter (née Josh Tillman) proved an immediately intriguing character. With the charisma of a preacher and a comedian’s sense of delivery, Tillman waxed existential to the sounds of his then-home of Laurel Canyon, a semi-mythical L.A. neighborhood that inspired the likes of Joni Mitchell, CSNY and Jackson Browne. Rather than mystify L.A., like an auditory R. Crumb comic, “Fear Fun” stultified life in the city with self-indulgence, absurdity and endless satire.
“I Love You, Honeybear,” Tillman’s sophomore release, retains hints of the winning glib humor of Father John Misty. The doses are short and sweet, squeezed off amidst what is an often sobering deconstruction of Tillman’s love life, philosophy and fears. We still get lines like, “Oh I just love the kind of woman who can walk over a man / and I mean like a goddamn marching band.” But in favor of quippy one-liners, Tillman lets the veil fall here, and achieves an album of far deeper impressions.
Most of Tillman’s time on “Honeybear” is spent pondering what Cher would call “life after love.” His meeting, recent marriage and utter infatuation with his lady concern all but maybe two of the albums tracks. Again, you might think he would play this for at least one “I Think I Love My Wife” yuck, but instead, deadpans it from the heart. Tillman greets this expectation early on with “Cheateu Lobby #4 (In C For Two Virgins).” With all the jingling guitars and bongos of a new-age coupling ceremony, he begins predictably, “So bourgeoisie to keep waiting / dating for twenty years just feels pretty civilian,” before deftly turning the Father John Misty shtick on its head: “I’ve never thought that once in my whole life.”
Over a pastiche of pop genres—he ventures into grunge, soul and even electronica in fits—Tillman proceeds to let you know how he really feels. The album’s strongest assertion comes late on with Over a piano and a mocking laugh-track, Tillman takes a bleak look at existence in modern America, and the things that keep us going through the motions (shopping, debt, drugs) until we’re replaced by the next generation, ad infinitum. This is Tillman at a heretofore unknown height of his power that will single-handedly elevate whatap expected of his songwriting. Here, the only laughs are piped in—perhaps an ironic jab at how he, like so many, cope with all the madness of the day-to-day world.
These sincere reflections are by no means guaranteed to work for Father John Misty. Like expecting a good actor to make , or a great athlete to make , it doesn’t follow that an adept comedic mind will necessarily make compelling art about something as unwieldy and massive as love. Even here, it isn’t always compelling. “Nothing Ever Good Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow” and “Ideal Husband” aren’t particularly revelatory, relatable or—cardinal sin among all for an entertainer—interesting. But on an otherwise charming, thoughtful, and artful album, these are in a small minority. Father John Misty’s “I Love You Honeybear” proves a rare exception: the performer off-stage exceeding the act onstage.
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Dylan Owens writes album reviews, essays and features for Reverb. You can read more from him on , or the comment sections of WORLDSTARHIPHOP.
