Album of the Week: Father John Misty, 'Pure Comedy'
by Jill Riley
April 17, 2017
Full disclosure: I'm a BIG fan of Father John Misty.
The album of the week is Father John Misty Pure Comedy. This is the third album that Josh Tillman has made under the moniker Father John Misty. Fear Fun is still one of my favorite albums and remains in heavy rotation at home. His last record, I Love You, Honeybear, was a concept album about his own life and his new wife. The dark, sarcastic tone of the song "Bored in the USA" was a good foreshadowing on what was to come with the new record, Pure Comedy.
If you're anything like me, you listen to a lot of music to escape the frustrating realities of the world, fights over politics, religion, the cruelty of society. You won't find that escape with this album, Pure Comedy, in fact, get ready to face the ugliness of humanity, head on, per the gospel of Father John Misty. Sounds heavy, right? I get the impression that Josh Tillman didn't make this record as a song and dance routine to entertain his fans, it's his brutally honest examination of the societal failings on this planet.
Songs to check out from Pure Comedy are: "Ballad of the Dying Man," in which Father John Misty sings about a dying man, wondering who will be around to callout all the dimwits and posers once he's dead and gone? In "Total Entertainment Forever," he examines how we choose to entertain ourselves, plugging in, zoning out and buying into celebrity culture. The title track, "Pure Comedy" is about the ironies of being a human being and belonging to a society, whether it's how we sustain our species, politics, language, religion, finally boiling it down to the existence of mankind being, in fact, pure comedy.
Speaking of comedy, when is Father John Misty going to let us in on the joke? Seriously.
Father John Misty, Pure Comedy, is out now and local fans can look forward to his tour stop in the Twin Cities at Surly Brewing Festival Field on August 19th.
Resources
Father John Misty - official site