Pure Comedy

Piano+acoustic guitar. Very simple instrumentation complemented by sardonic thoughts on religion, technology, whiteness, etc. No matter what you think of the often pretentious, occasionally trenchant Father John Misty, he has pared down his music to its bare bones for a phenomenal album. Accumulating thoughts and ideas from years of songwriting, he lays down song-after-song of witty, apocalyptic lyrics. A few highlights, but a thoroughly entertaining album.
Genre: “Singer-Songwriter” or whatever that means lol
RIYL: Elton John, Tobias Jesso Jr, Fleet Foxes,
FCCs: none surprisingly
Favorite Tracks: 1, 5, 7, 11
Pure Comedy (6:24)* - Piano Ballad, sleepy drums kick in, driven largely by FJM’s larger commentary on the comedy of human experience, trumpets and full band come in
Total Entertainment Forever (2:54) - upbeat, acoustic, jangly, commenting on the weirdness of VR “bedding Taylor Swift every night inside the oculus rift”
Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution (4:19) - slow piano builds into grand chorus, an apocalyptic future after the revolution against technology
Ballad of the Dying Man (4:51) - stripped down acoustic, a critique of critics? Nihilistic jab at a self-absorbed dying man
Birdie (5:20)* - plodding piano, inverts the freebird trope, laments the fate of humanity, some hope, interesting choppy samples, cool grand outro
Leaving LA (13:12) - took 3 years to write, an epic, begins with stripped down intro, strings build, contemplative self analysis on his rise to fame, religion, Oedipal complex, etc. etc. Great track
A Bigger Paper Bag (4:42)* - lusher instrumentation, full sound, more swaggering lyrics
When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay (4:05) - piano ballad, God visiting the earth before the apocalypse
Smoochie (3:46) - expansive guitars, evoking countryside, succinct and ominous
Two Wildly Different Perspectives (3:13) - modern political discourse, polarized Dems and Reps
The Memo (5:17) - lamenting the state of cultural decay in the states, interesting bridge conversation with a text-to-speech bot, highly self-aware
So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain (9:58) - really long instrumental outro, about growing old, might be cool for a mic break
In Twenty Years or So (6:27)* - getting nihilist and self referential again, really pretty strings