father john misty – pure comedy (2017)

Josh Tillman’s third album as FJM remains his most immense work. Where ‘I Love You, Honeybear’ (2015) displayed an unafraid personal commitment, ‘Pure Comedy’ looked outward at the loss of societal vitality. The record suggests that our innate struggles are now despairingly medicated by falsities, culminating in a self-delusion which precedes faux sanctimony and vrais trouble. FJM hotly desires revolution, but notes resentment at the ‘lack of convenience’ it brings. That is when his humour is mined—once desperate human beliefs have pounded life, denied it, negotiated in bad faith, and ultimately lost. ‘Pure Comedy’ is a beautiful foreword to a future of material horrors.  

28/30

A favourite: ‘Pure Comedy’