I Love You, Honeybear (Audio CD)

Father John Misty aka Josh Tillman, formerly of the Fleet Foxes, has a weight of expectation on this his second album under the pseudonym. With explicit lyrics, a tongue firmly placed in his cheek and quite a bit of baggage this albums is a delight and lives up to those expectations. Largely guitar and piano based this builds slowly throughout the eleven tracks to gives a melodic, sometimes awkward viewpoint of the protagonist. Sometimes it feels like every song is a counterpoint to something else. Bored in the USA is a slowed down answering call to the Bruce Springsteen Born in The USA anthem. It also includes the audio equivalent of the safety wink with canned laughter coming in during the denouement where he decries the modern state of America, The Night Josh Tillman... and When You're Smiling Astride Me sound like they are a companion set to the John Grant album Pale Green Ghosts. Ideal Husband picks the pace up and is delivered in such a bitter manner you can taste the lemons,...Read more

This might be the quintessential hipster album—and I mean that in a good way.Granted, there’s some debate about what constitutes a hipster, and whether it’s a pejorative term; few of them (us?) would self-identify, but if you’re wearing a beard (as Josh Tillman does) and getting an 8.8 in Pitchfork (as this album did) it’s a pretty safe bet you are one. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.Rob Horning speculated in 2009 that the hipster was the “embodiment of postmodernism as a spent force.” The postmodernism part fits—this album is clearly the work of someone who’s spent more than his share of time listening to and deconstructing other things (in this case, classic rock). There are echoes of George Harrison’s gentle guitar weepings in the beautiful and awesomely-titled “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me,” which could have been a lost track from “All Things Must...Read more