Father John Misty: Pure Comedy (2LP) [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set lays out all 13 songs over four sides, with "Leaving LA" filling most of side B. It debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 and topped Billboard's Rock, Alternative and Folk album charts, a first for Tillman.

This edition

• 2LP set

About the album

Most singer-songwriters announce a new album with a single. Josh Tillman sent his fan club an 1,800-word essay. Written mostly in 2015, his third album as Father John Misty since leaving Fleet Foxes takes on progress, technology, fame, the environment, ageing and human nature, framed as the story of a species born with a half-formed brain and very good at inventing meaning.

He cut it in March 2016 at United Recording in Los Angeles, tracking the band and vocals live in no more than two takes, and produced it with Jonathan Wilson and engineer Trevor Spencer. Composer Gavin Bryars, Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett added choral arrangements, strings and horns swell around the piano, and Bob Ludwig mastered it. The title track opens like a newsreel, "Things It Would Have Been Helpful To Know Before The Revolution" and "When The God Of Love Returns There'll Be Hell To Pay" bring the big ideas, and "So I'm Growing Old On Magic Mountain" lets the mood soften.

It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, and Tillman shot a 25-minute black-and-white film of the sessions with Grant James. Critics reached for Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, and the song titles alone would fill most bands' lyric sheets.

Also at Kops: more Father John Misty on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP1200), the 2017 album.