Father John Misty (aka Joshua Tillman) is back with, 'I Love You Honeybear,' his sophomore release under the Father John Misty moniker.
'I Love You, Honeybear' was recorded intermittently from 2013 to 2014 in Echo Park, Los Angeles and produced with Jonathan Wilson, who also recorded and produced 2012's 'Fear Fun.'
There's a case to be made that the album sounds and acts a bit like Scott Walker, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Dory Previn.
The songs are a narration of Josh Tillman's experience falling in love, which he says "means different things to different people, but which I found incredibly inspiring, personally and creatively."
He says his "personal mandate for the writing herein was to claim the experience for myself without resorting to a multitude of clichés. I believe I have addressed the sensuality of fear, the terrifying force of love, the unutterable pleasures of true intimacy, and the destruction of emotional and intellectual prisons with an imprint that is undeniably my own."
This is a fairly experimental record, in that Josh and the band "experimented" with several different approaches for each song even though the arrangements and styling are fairly classic. Taking a larger producer role this time around gave him license to "indulge no small degree of ambivalence and uncertainty." The material demanded a new way of being made and it took some time before that revealed itself. What came out is something meticulous but natural, dense but still spacious. Josh says "mostly I had to overcome the temptation to think that the method by which the last record was made would suffice this time around too."
Track list:
- I Love You, Honeybear
- Chateau Lobby #4 (In C For Two Virgins)
- True Affection
- The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.
- When You're Smiling And Astride Me
- Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow
- Strange Encounter
- The Ideal Husband
- Bored In The USA
- Holy Shit
- I Went To The Store One Day