Redemption Songs

Father John Misty

God’s Favorite Customer

Josh Tillman returns as Father John Misty on God’s Favorite Customer, blurring the lines between artist and alter-ego and trading humour for heartbreak on a concise record that’s as sombre as it is satisfying, an emotionally wounded, ambitious attempt to capture a man at his most desperate, all in under 40 minutes. Rather than trying to build on the lofty highs reached on Pure Comedy, Tillman takes his progress for a joyride straight into a pole, letting us ogle the gruesome details as he bleeds out in the driver’s seat. Perhaps it’s a little less grand and a little less fun than its predecessors; that’s to be expected from a man who spent two months living in a hotel while he penned the record. Tillman is clearly notorious at the hotel from previous stays, and he somehow manages to make a song about checking in catchy as hell.

Tillman bares all on “The Songwriter,” which might be the most vulnerable moment in his discography. He seems to sing directly to his wife, over barren piano chords, asking aloud how she’d portray him to the masses if she were the one writing songs. It’s heart-wrenching, but he seems to reach a previously unrealized understanding, which may end up being his lone shot at

MODERN COMPOSITION

in the ideas and urges within. (Arts & Crafts, www.arts-crafts.ca) R& B FOLK ROCK redemption on God’s Favorite Customer. As he muses on “Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All,” “Does everybody have to be the greatest story ever told?” Perhaps that’s the best case he makes for God’s Favorite Customer. Not every record needs to topple the last with even more epic instrumentation and colossal wit. Sometimes it’s better to crash and burn in a hotel room for two months. (Sub Pop, www.subpop.com)