Father John Misty - Chloë and the Next 20th Century ALBUM REVIEW
No, Mr. John Misty, get away from the lady in the radiator!!
It’s interesting to see the discourse around Josh Tillman, known professionally as Father John Misty. It’s not that he’s a piece of shit person or anything, it all revolves around the music. I know people that adore his music. I know people that just despise his music. I really don’t know what it is, mainly because I’m just so divided on him. Yes, he’s a very talented musician who deserves to get critical acclaim, but in most of the music, he just comes off as a pretentious douche. Tillman has come out and said that FJM is a character and doesn’t reflect himself, but I can’t help but feel put off by it. Maybe that’s why his last album, 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer, worked so well with me. It was stripping back that pretentiousness and looking under the microscope of Father John Misty, like everything was planned. I’m hoping the same with Chloë and the Next 20th Century, with some fantastic art direction all around. Let’s get into my thoughts on it.
The first thing to mention is the album’s instrumentation, which is mainly inspired by big band music from the 1940s. It mainly marks a return to FJM’s theatricality, which was absent in God’s Favorite Customer. It really helps the atmosphere of the album shine and was the main selling point of this album. I do think that this has the best implementation of this cinematic scope out of all of his projects. At times, it feels like these songs could be translated very well to the screen from directors like Wong Kar-Wai or Paul Thomas Anderson. The lyrics here, even if they didn’t blow my mind, I admire the fact that his satire just isn’t here that much. I’m just not a fan of his style of satire, and the lack of it really helped me get through this album. To wrap it up in a bow, Chloë and the Next 20th Century was cool but nothing impressive. Father John Misty’s return has him lost in gorgeous string arrangements and not much else.
6/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Chloë and the Next 20th Century is a Sub Pop / Bella Union release.
It’s interesting to see the discourse around Josh Tillman, known professionally as Father John Misty. It’s not that he’s a piece of shit person or anything, it all revolves around the music. I know people that adore his music. I know people that just despise his music. I really don’t know what it is, mainly because I’m just so divided on him. Yes, he’s a very talented musician who deserves to get critical acclaim, but in most of the music, he just comes off as a pretentious douche. Tillman has come out and said that FJM is a character and doesn’t reflect himself, but I can’t help but feel put off by it. Maybe that’s why his last album, 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer, worked so well with me. It was stripping back that pretentiousness and looking under the microscope of Father John Misty, like everything was planned. I’m hoping the same with Chloë and the Next 20th Century, with some fantastic art direction all around. Let’s get into my thoughts on it.
The first thing to mention is the album’s instrumentation, which is mainly inspired by big band music from the 1940s. It mainly marks a return to FJM’s theatricality, which was absent in God’s Favorite Customer. It really helps the atmosphere of the album shine and was the main selling point of this album. I do think that this has the best implementation of this cinematic scope out of all of his projects. At times, it feels like these songs could be translated very well to the screen from directors like Wong Kar-Wai or Paul Thomas Anderson. The lyrics here, even if they didn’t blow my mind, I admire the fact that his satire just isn’t here that much. I’m just not a fan of his style of satire, and the lack of it really helped me get through this album. To wrap it up in a bow, Chloë and the Next 20th Century was cool but nothing impressive. Father John Misty’s return has him lost in gorgeous string arrangements and not much else.
6/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Chloë and the Next 20th Century is a Sub Pop / Bella Union release.
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