Father John Misty

What's the music like? Well for one, Father John Misty is a persona created by Josh Tillman, former drummer of Fleet Foxes. Before this, Tillman did quite a few solo albums that never really got attention. He made a big splash when he created Father John Misty. The persona of the character is a preachy, condescending, and sarcastic womanizer. The lyrics and vocalization reflect this, and are meant to be over the top at times (much like his live performances).

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The album 'I love you honeybear' is great.

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I think its his best and most complete album. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, but I had this album on repeat for a couple months but eventually got sick of it. Don't watch any live shows...as he has a weird shtick. Just listen to the music.

I thought Pure Comedy was pretty good as well.

He’s like a modern day Randy Newman meets Elton John. I really enjoy his songwriting and sound.

I would start with the I Love You Honeybear album.

I think Pure Comedy is his best work, but the least accessible and relistenable for someone just getting into him. It’s a beautiful record. Magic Mountain might be the best song he’s made.

I Love You Honeybear would be the one to introduce yourself to him. He hasn’t released anything below a B-B+ IMO.

Pure Comedy 9.5/10
I Love You Honeybear 9.5/10
Fear Fun 9/10
Gods Favorite Customer 8.5/10

Father John Misty is one of my favorites. His first album, Fear Fun, is overall pretty light-hearted and easy to listen to. It's the most poppy of all his content, so that is probably a good place to start.

Fear Fun's best tracks in my opinion:

I'm Writing A Novel

Nancy From Now On

This is Sally Hatchet

His followup to Fear Fun is "I Love You, Honeybear". To me, this is his best album. Most of the songs are romantic in nature - Chateau Lobby #4 is a really great one. This link it to a really stellar live performance of the song. But in I Love You Honeybear the content of some of the songs shifts to a more critical, cynical, existential vibe. Notably Holy shite and Bored in the USA.

Now - if you use the word "baw" unironically, chances are this will be the last album of Papa John's you find entertaining. His sebsequent albums are increasingly dark. Super critical of Nicolas Cage and society at large but also ... well, brilliant. The content of most of his songs don't really align well with the general world view of a conservative, religious type person.

The next album he released is "Pure Comedy". Not a lot funny on this one, but there's some excellent songs on here. Pure Comedy is a great song but if you're religious it may offend your sensibilities. Total Entertainment Forever is a sad but equally amusing glimpse into our future. Ballad of a Dying Man and Things it Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution are a couple other winners on what overall is most often described as a pretty "meh" album overall.

His newest album is "Nicolas Cage's Favorite Customer". Like Pure Comedy, the tone of the album is dark - his darkest to date. As a long-time fan I do enjoy the album - notably Mr. Tillman, Please Don't Die, and Hangout at the Gallows.

This album, coupled with Pure Comedy before it, kind of reminds me of Neil Young's "Ditch Trilogy" - On the Beach, Tonight's the Night, and Time Fades Away. Like Neil, Papa John followed up a nice poppy, approachable couple albums with a couple albums that don't have as much broad appeal, but probably feature his best work.

He seems like kind of an a-hole in real life. He's eccentric and seems to be in the throws of some pretty serious depression, but I really like his music.

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He’s the singer from Fleet Foxes, so notnexactly that but not unlike

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He was the drummer for their second album, not the singer. Honestly I much prefer his music to that of Fleet Foxes.