Father John Misty (singer-songwriter Joshua Tillman) now has a Grammy to his name (for Best Recording Package) and an upcoming fourth album (with no release date at the moment). Last November, he revealed to that the song titles from the album include “Ouch, I’m Drowning”, “Dum Dum Blues”, “Mr Tillman, Please Exit The Lobby” and “Well, We’re Only People And There’s Nothing Much We Can Do About It”. He also revealed that the album had been written in the wake of a "heartache" that he could not elaborate on at the moment (since he would have to include details about other people who wished to retain their privacy:
“Most of this next album was written in a six-week period where I was kind of on the straits. I was living in a hotel for two months. It’s kind of about… yeah… misadventure. The words were just pouring out of me. It’s really rooted in something that happened last year that was… well, my life blew up. I think the music essentially serves the purpose of making the painful and the isolating less painful and less isolating. But in short, it’s a heartache album.”
Earlier this week, he released the track "Mr Tillman". Given that the track's verses are sung from the perspective of a hotel employee beleaguered by his antics, it is most probably a retitled version of “Mr Tillman, Please Exit The Lobby”. He is not asked to leave, but repeated concerns about proper hotel etiquette and his wellbeing are voiced: 'There's a few outstanding charges just before we check you in/ Let's see here, you left your passport in the mini fridge/ And the message with the desk says here the picture isn't his/ And oh, just a reminder about our policy:/Don't leave your mattress in the rain if you sleep on the balcony'. Naturally, the suggestion that he "shouldn’t drink alone" is breezily rebuffed by a light-headed chorus that goes 'I'm feeling good/ Damn, I'm feeling so fine/ I'm living on a cloud above an island in my mind/ Okay babe, don't be alarmed this is just my vibe'.
As promised, the track departs from previous Pure Comedy standouts like "Leaving LA", “Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution”, and "Total Entertainment Forever" by advancing a solely inward gaze. Instead of societal woes, Father John Misty's brand of ironic folk-pop is now being used to excavate his own dysfunctions and neuroses. The song itself hints at more self-analysis to come, but only explores the surface of his infamous flair for eccentrics. One hopes to get a better glimpse of his inner demons in the album's subsequent singles.
