Album review: Father John Misty - Chloë and the Next 20th Century
Father John Misty.
★★★☆☆
“A sarcastic Michael Bublé” is how the artist born Joshua Tillman has described his Father John Misty persona.
We’ll have to guess what he meant as Tillman has declined to give any interviews to promote Father John’s fifth studio album (presumably he’s fed up repeatedly answering questions about his evangelical Christian family). Instead, Tillman lets his raffish alter-ego express himself across a series of sumptuous torch songs that sound as if they were laid down in the lounge bar at the end of the universe.
Faded vignettes from a gentleman crooner who has seen it all is the go-to mood, as spelled out by song titles – Goodbye, Mr Blue, (Everything But) Her Love – that suggest a Harry Nilsson b-side or a forgotten Randy Newman compilation from 1975.
The question of whether the LP is wallowing in pastiche or delivering an affectionate homage to mid-20th century pop is tricky. Tillman lays his heart out on Kiss Me (I Loved You), a lulling piano shuffling against 4am, come hither vocals (“the ferryman’s been stranded/stay with me tonight instead”).
But then there’s the smeared-on saxophone of Buddy’s Rendezvous and the artery-clogging Hollywood strings on Funny Girl – affectations that tip the album from valentine to parody. And when his voice builds towards a sarcastic yelp on We Could Be Strangers it’s hard not to think you are encountering the jeers of a clown.
Tillman was raised in the sort of bible-fearing, the Devil-is-coming-for-you household that can scar you for life. And throughout Chloë and the Next 20th Century the sense is of an artist with a heavy soul playing make-believe as a way of engaging, and making peace with, their demons.
What a strange record it is: half-sincere, half performatively phoney. But, then, part of the cosmic joke with this project lies in appreciating the gulf between Father John Misty, clear-eyed showman, and Joshua Tillman, survivor of a fire and brimstone upbringing. He remains a fascinating figure even when Chloë and the Next 20th Century feels like a skit carried too far.
