Father John Misty - 'God's Favorite Customer' // Album Review

Genre - Signer-Songwriter, Contemporary Folk

Release Date - June 1, 2018

Father John Misty is the pseudonym for California based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Josh Tillman. It has been quite the interesting past couple of years for Josh artistically. It seemed as if every single time a new Father John Misty album was released, it had its own distinct style and feeling. His debut album in 2012, Fear Fun, was a series of lighthearted and often quirky songs picking fun at the entertainment industry, while his sophomore effort, 2015’s I Love You Honeybear, was a much more focused album portraying Josh’s feelings on modern love and things of that nature. Both of these albums I enjoy very much for different reasons, but Josh didn’t really blow me away until he came out with last year’s Pure Comedy. A record that shifted Josh’s focus more towards a politically charged angle without sacrificing what made him such an endearing songwriter to begin with. The songs on Pure Comedy were a lot more intricate in their design and structure, which turned some of his older fans off, which evidently is something he sings about on this new album on the track “The Songwriter.” I, however, was instantly captivated by Josh’s emotion and witty songwriting coming to light in a more serious atmosphere than what he had experimented with before. I feel like Pure Comedy is without a doubt the best written album of 2017 and a look into any of the songs on it is a clear indicator why.

In contrast, God’s Favorite Customer seems to be quite a big departure from the politically focused record that preceded it. It’s a lot more direct and straightforward, I feel. It’s only about 40 minutes as opposed to Pure Comedy’s 75. But this much shorter run time becomes a lot more forgivable once you realize the context in which this album was written. In the fall of 2017, Josh was on tour in Europe and suffered from a very depressive mental breakdown where he forced himself into a hotel room for six straight weeks, and it was in this time that all the music on this new album was written. As one would expect, there are a lot of themes of mental health, anxiety, and loneliness all across this album, which Josh is able to confront in a variety of ways that all are able to feel unique from one another.

Opening track “Hangout At The Gallows” is probably one of the most introspective cuts in the entire Father John Misty discography. Here he seems to be trying to figure out why human nature can be as harsh as it is. He references things such as religion and politics as a possible source for this hostility but eventually comes to the conclusion that he simply doesn’t know and invites the listener to come “hang out at the gallows” with him, essentially proposing they should both kill themselves. It’s quite a statement to make to kick your album off with, but I feel that since these themes of depression and suicidal tendencies run so deep in the lyrics of this record, a song of this grim nature serves as the perfect tone setter. I also love the reverb effect on his voice in this song and use of the swindling keys and descending leads vocals is a haunting attention to detail that I really appreciate.

The following track, “Mr. Tillman,” is sung from the perspective of a hotel concierge trying to tell Josh to stop these visions of delusion he seems to be having. In the chorus he seems to revert back to singing from his own perspective where you find that, in his head, nothing is wrong at all. Obviously this is a direct reference to him living in a hotel during the creative process of this album, and I think it goes over quite well. I love the dreary lead melody on this song and the harmonized vocalizations toward the beginning. “Mr. Tillman” serves as one of two songs on the album that portray what it was like living in this hotel during these six weeks, the other of which being the song “The Palace.” Where “Mr. Tillman” is a bit tongue-and-cheek in its representation of the situation, “The Palace” is a stark contrast from it with its very moody and soft minor key piano playing. “The Palace” is one of the few moments where you’re getting Josh’s straightforward thoughts as opposed to the sarcastic demeanor present on a lot of the songs here. He essentially begins to view the hotel as a “palace” because it has begun to be the only place where he feels safe. His wife eventually texts him to come home and that she’s worried and it leaves Josh in a state of conflict because he doesn’t know if he’s ready to face the outside world again. He starts singing about how he thought about getting a pet, but decided against it because since he’s living on “house keeping and room service” having to take care of something else while he himself is being taken care of would “defeat the purpose.” The song eventually fades out with his repeating the refrain that he’s “in over his head,” signifying that even if he thinks he has a handle on the whole situation, he couldn’t really have any less of a clue on how to deal with it.

I don’t want to leave the impression that this entire album is a depressing listen because it really isn’t for the most part. The main theme is Josh combating his own mental disorder, but the way in which he approaches this results in some pretty interesting moments, I guess “dark humor” would be the best way to categorize it. The song “Date Night” is an incredibly short yet sweet song harking back to the days where he was single. He sings about how sleazy and disgusting he used to be in the way he would try and pick up women. There’s this really odd lyric about how he’s only going to buy this girl ice cream in exchange for her card and how the only reason he isn’t doing something a little more impressive with his time at the moment is because “his mojo is gone,” which I can only assume is a euphemism for his sex drive. It’s the kind of song that would have fit rather snugly into his 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear, but since he’s reflecting on himself in this moment it makes sense in the context of this album too. And while I’m on the topic of more lighthearted songs, the track “Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All” is another fun moment. He’s basically using a bunch of unconventional metaphors to describe the love that he feels for his wife, Emma, singing about how their “love will never die” like “a constant twitching in the eye” and the love bursting out of him isn’t too unlike “a carcass left out in the heat.” Considering that this song appears in between two of the more soul crushing songs in the track listing, those being “The Palace” and the title track, a fun song like this is a nice way to divvy up the moods present on this album.

The song “Please Don’t Die” is another huge highlight for me. In the way that “Mr. Tillman” is sung from the perspective of a hotel concierge, this is sung from the perspective of Josh’s wife, Emma, as she tries to figure out why she lost contact with her husband and where he is. The song seems to be in the style of a voicemail she’s leaving him, she mentions a bunch of cryptic messages she’s been receiving and how she just misses his company in general. She even goes on in the second verse to wonder who will make the funeral arrangements, just in case the reason she lost contact with him is because something terrible happened. She kind of loses it towards the beginning of the chorus, where she pleads that Josh is all that she has and that he’s too important to her to lose. She comes to the conclusion that, wherever he is, just please don’t die. Easily it’s the most heart wrenching moment on the entire album and shows that Josh feels huge regret for what he inadvertently put Emma through. Ironically, there’s a line where Emma asks him to be more empathic in terms of letting her know where he is and yet this is the most empathic song Josh has ever written.

The final stretch of this album shows Josh confronting some more personal demons in the form of religion in the title track and how he put his fans against him with the release of his last album on the track “The Songwriter.” The former of which is probably my favorite song on the album, I love the whimsical harmonica played throughout the chorus and the angelic guest background vocals from camber pop Weyes Blood towards the songs climax. He seems to be asking an angel for guidance in this rough time in his life despite the fact that he makes it abundantly clear that he’s not religious at all. I feel this is more of a desperation move than it is one of faith. He refers to himself as someone who used to be “God’s favorite customer” in his adolescence and hopes that he could be repaid for that in return for this mental anguish to be uplifted. “The Songwriter” is more or less the same concept, but instead of pleading with God, he pleads with some of his former fans to hopefully support him again in the way that they used to. These two songs are great to show the lengths of which Josh is willing to go through in order to help his mental illness be cured, and the logical surmountable conclusion is met on the following and final track of the album “We’re Only People (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That.)” Essentially, this song is about Josh coming to terms with the mental stress confronting him, saying that nobody should have all of this guilt weighted on their shoulders. The period of crisis in which this album was conceived led Josh to an extremely enlightening self-reflection and a personal desire for him to change and grow from this. It’s such a jubilant way to end the record off and giving with how this the album starts with a suicidal invitation, it demonstrates a growth and progression Josh had to face on this album.

As far as any complaints I had with this record, there aren’t many to speak of. If anything, I feel that these more lighthearted cuts, such as “Date Night” or “Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of The All” could’ve been fleshed out just bit more because they are rather brief, each one standing at only around two minutes. The fact that they come and go so quickly kind of draws away from the humorous effect they’re supposed to have on the album, in my opinion. Even that complaint, however, is very minuscule in comparison with everything I loved about it. I feel that as far as tackling mental illness, in a way that’s so raw and uncut, but at the same time so refreshing and ambitious is a great feature that only a songwriter of Father John Misty’s caliber can truly execute with this much grace and precision. I think the actual music on God’s Favorite Customer is absolutely fantastic and accompanies the mood of the given song quite well. I feel this is an album that everybody could get something out of in one way or another, and it only adds to the hot streak of releases Josh is on that I can only hope continues further into the future.

Favorite Songs

"Hangout at the Gallows"

"Mr. Tillman"

"Date Night"

"Please Don’t Die"

"The Palace"

"God’s Favorite Customer"

"The Songwriter"

"We’re Only Peop'le (And There’s Not Much Anyone Can Do About That)"

Least Favorite Song

"Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All"

9/10