ALBUM: Pure Comedy (2017)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$
Lot of things going on here. Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty is a smart guy. I think he knows it.
Pure Comedy is a song that is near brilliant.
Tillman’s story in one sentence: The drummer of folk rock group Fleet Foxes took some psilocybin mushrooms a few years ago, became enlightened, started using a pseudonym, and began wearing better clothes.
Couple of anomalies to clear up before I go forward. The usual My Vinyl Countdown records are ones I picked in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I’ve been counting them down, 678 in all, to raise awareness of Lewy body dementia, which I have. I have about 500 records to go .
Pure Comedy breaks the mode a bit in that this is a 2017 vinyl recording that I received from family members who want to extend my life under the theory that the more I have the more time I have to live. And it is true that this disease shortens lifespans but that I have vowed to finish the reviews, which on my current pace will be about 2 or more years from now unless I accelerate.
So, anomaly one, this is contemporary. Not my golden 1980s — stop-making-synth records. I will review and countdown new vinyl, when I get it and have done so at least two other times with Joseph Arthur and Max DeMarco.
I have some more coming up, including, I believe, the Fleet Foxes which connects to the Misty record here.
And, anomaly two, this double record set came with two of the same records – I got two side 3’s and side 4s. I did not get a side 1 and 2. What the hell? It’s a factory packaging mistake that in no way makes it more valuable. So, I filled in the rest of this record by going on YouTube to listen to the songs I was missing, especially the title track, a key song here.
Opening line is one strong couplet, foreshadowing and outlining the album’s life-is-so-bad-it’s-funny themes. The comedy of it all. The divine comedy of it all. Star.
The comedy of man starts like this; our brains are way too big for our mother’s hips.
But the album itself cannot stay at that high level and sinks slowly back into the primordial pool. To make this totally work, you would have to love the words so much to hang with this singer who is not working much in traditional pop structures. Dylan could be like that – so could early Billy Joel who went 180 degrees the other way later toward more formulaic derivative pop.
Would it be fair to say Tillman is somewhere between Billy Joel and Bob Dylan? Probably not. More like a day-glo Randy Newman.
But Tillman started something, by starting the album in this way. He caused me to be on alert for a real honest-to-God trailblazing singer-songwriter. The rest of the album didn’t tip me over though. So he is still on my ‘watch’ list. Update: I just watched/saw Misty’s ‘God’s Favorite Customer’ on YouTube. Excellent. Beautiful. I’m starting to tip. Then I watched ‘Mr. Tillman video. Wow. Now I have to get this on vinyl and put the new one on my countdown.
Back to Pure Comedy, here’s the opening that says it all and forecasts more:
The comedy of man starts like this; our brains are way too big for our mother’s hips.
And so nature, she divines this alternative:
We emerge half-formed and hope whoever greets us on the other end
Is kind enough to fill us in
And babies, that’s pretty much how it’s been ever since