The Evolution of Father John Misty

A look into how the discography of an indie folk star whose sound and lyrics have changed as much as his beard has.

Written by C.S. Harper

Just as notorious for his changing facial hair as he is for his mistakenly-perceived “pretentious” lyrics, Josh Tillman, known professionally as Father John Misty, has always been a force to be reckoned with. As fans prepare for Tillman’s next release, here is an in-depth look at his musical evolution.

A Fleet Foxes alumnus, Father John Misty’s debut solo album, Fear Fun, boasts the most folk-sounding songs in his discography. On this record, Tillman wears his influences on his sleeve more evidently than in later albums, with the instrumentation drawing heavily from traditional folk, The Beatles, and church music. While the production of Fear Fun lacks the depth and variety of Tillman’s subsequent albums, its lyrics display a fundamental complexity that would become essential to the Father John Misty oeuvre. Shortly following Tillman’s departure from Fleet Foxes, this record narrates his journey toward finding himself as an artist. His lyrics on this album consist primarily of quirky anecdotes with eccentric characters, and while Fear Fun lacks a cohesive theme, it contains many elements that Tillman’s music is known for today. By mocking pop culture, the entertainment industry, and consumerism in “Funtimes in Babylon” and “I’m Writing A Novel,” addressing environmental destruction on “Now I’m Learning to Love the War,” and scattering satirical pithies and biblical references throughout the album, Tillman sets the framework for his multifaceted musical persona.

Evolving from the twangy folk rock and descriptions of psychedelic exploits that characterized Fear Fun, Tillman adopts a lusher sound and more heartfelt narrative in his deeply personal I Love You, Honeybear. Although primarily an ode to his wife, Emma, Father John Misty’s sophomore album marks the beginning of his devolvement into darker, more mature themes. He takes his sardonic depiction of love on songs like “Tee Pees 1-12” and “Hollywood Cemetery Sings” from Fear Fun and turns it into a much more prominent aspect of his music on ILYH. As a result, Tillman’s lyrics become more sarcastic and openly cynical, with lines like “Everything is doomed / And nothing will be spared / But I love you, honeybear” on the title track. He also experiments with sounds outside of folk, using violins in the title track and “Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins)” and creating his first and only synth-heavy song to date, “True Affection.” Most importantly, though, songs like “Bored in the USA” and “Holy Sh-t” showcase a newfound concern for societal degradation that blossoms in his following record, Pure Comedy.

Widely regarded as his best work, Pure Comedy takes the lavish orchestral instrumentation of its predecessor and amplifies it to elevate Tillman’s increasingly profound and existential lyrics. Aside from the meticulousness and dedication that producing a 74-minute-long record like Pure Comedy would require, taking on its subject matter alone is an ambitious task.

Over the course of the album’s playing time, Tillman discusses a wide variety of topics, from the human condition to the future consequences of new technologies, social media, and climate change. In addition, Tillman builds upon the burgeoning sense of self-awareness displayed on ILYH songs like “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” by analyzing his own place amid the chaos of contemporary society. Pure Comedy’s infamous 13-minute existential odyssey “Leaving L.A” displays some of Tillman’s most candid lyrics. In it, Tillman recognizes the futility of creating a record like Pure Comedy with the lines, “‘Oh great, that’s just what we need / Another white guy in 2017 / Who takes himself so goddamn seriously.’” This introspective aspect of Pure Comedy would become the centerpiece of his next album.

After such a drastic thematic change in his music, Tillman follows up Pure Comedy just a year later with his latest album, 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer. Instead of making another ambitious record, Tillman underwent another musical transformation. This time, he abandons the orchestral production of his last two albums for a lowkey ballad folk-rock sound, and focuses on a more personal narrative.

In the lead single, “Mr. Tillman,” the singer-songwriter opens up about his depression for the first time. Tillman reintroduces the anecdotal style of Fear Fun to recount his experience staying at a hotel in a depressed state for two months. However, much of God’s Favorite Customer has a melancholic tone. On the title track, Tillman reflects on his disillusion with religion and his hopeless attempts to return to his faith during his mental health crisis: “I was God’s favorite customer / But now I’m in trouble.” Tillman also describes how his mental state affected Emma on “Please Don’t Die,” singing from her perspective, “And honey I’m worried about you / Put yourself in my shoes / You’re all that I have, so please don’t die.”

Later in the album, Tillman makes it clear that his marriage is long past its lovey-dovey I Love You, Honeybear days in the brutally self-aware “The Songwriter,” in which he recognizes the emotional toll that his exposing lyrics have had on Emma. Despite the despair that Tillman experiences in God’s Favorite Customer, his Pure Comedy cynicism disappears as he recognizes that all people — even himself — are deeply flawed on the last track, “We’re Only People (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That).”

With all this in mind, what will the polarizing singer-songwriter do next? Having debuted two new songs, “Tell It Like It Is” and “Time Makes Fools of Us All,” in concert, many fans speculate that Tillman will make a return to his folk-rock Fear Fun days. No matter where he goes next, one thing is for sure: Father John Misty’s artistic metamorphosis is not only a sonic or lyrical journey, but also a fascinating character study on Josh Tillman and Father John Misty’s merging personas.

Afterglow ATXOctober 21, 2019C.S. Harper, C.S. Hayter