Father John Misty-God’s Favorite Customer Review
Josh Tillman has always been a jack-of-all-trades within his music, ranging from budding cynic on 2012’s Fear Fun, lovesick doter on 2015’s I Love You, Honeybear, to society’s Atlas on last year’s phenomenal Pure Comedy. While his past three albums have always felt innovative in the contemporary indie folk scene, in addition to providing unique background towards the Father John Misty persona, God’s Favorite Customer feels like an excellent crop of new tracks bathed in a bit of stylistic déjà vu.
Opener “Hangout at the Gallows” is a welcome change of pace from the sprawling back-half of Comedy, with the track’s jangly and slightly upbeat instrumental fitting tightly with Tillman’s cryptic commentary on the increasing tribalization of politics and religious preferences (“Whose bright idea was it to sharpen the knives?/Just twenty minutes ‘fore the boat capsize”). Lead single “Mr. Tillman” remains one of the strongest tracks on the record, utilizing ghostly vocal layering and hilarious takes on celebrity culture (not to mention the highly enjoyable Shining-esque music video), while “Just Dumb Enough To Try” might be the most depressing Misty song to date, discussing the intensified development of character flaws during marriage and the insane irony of love songs (“But you can take what I know about love/And drown it in the sink”).
“Date Night” is touched with a whirring “True Affection”-like electronic flair alongside a helping of self-centric relationship banter, atypical from the other tracks on the album. The following track “Please Don’t Die” discusses Tillman’s depressive two month “misadventure” living in a hotel room, enlisting in benders with “reptilian strangers” and worrying about the continuing deflation of outside relationships. “The Palace” also comments on this dark period, with the dimming instrumentation and at times whispered vocals making clear the narrator’s self-awareness towards his internal demons and delusions. “Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All”, the shortest track on the album, fits in a trim commentary on Misty’s warped perspective towards love, affirming “(love) that lasts forever really can’t be that special” among poignant comparisons of the emotion to rotting carcasses and oil spills.
On the final stretch of Customer, the title track serves as a sorrowful admiration of those who can blindly turn to religion for peace of mind, with the instrumentation which includes muted harmonica, driving bass, and angelic backing vocals from Weyes Blood adding up to an incredible peak. The last two tracks,“The Songwriter” and “We’re Only People (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That)” resemble the last remnants of stream-of-consciousness Comedy-era Misty. The prior references his 2017 track “Birdie” among an ultra-personal hypothetical directed at Tillman’s wife Emma, while the closer tackles the difficult shedding of weight seen in recovery from mental distress.
God’s Favorite Customer may not reach the lofty heights set by the previous two Father John Misty albums, but it provides necessary insight into the normally hidden mental hurdles that fast-rising musicians face. Hearing an artist normally as collected and sharp as Misty in this depressing light is difficult at times, but never overbearing or uninteresting. While the instrumentation on the record is mysterious and haunting, a twisted blend of the blissful honeymoon phase of Honeybear and quiet orchestration of Comedy, it still complements Tillman’s standard rambling and ever-experimenting vocals and helps make the effort a more memorable listen.
