41

41. I Love You, Honeybear - Father John Misty (2014)

Indie Alternative

I Love You, Honeybear is narcissistic, self-congratulatory, blatantly off-center (seemingly for the sake of being off-center), searingly sarcastic and, at times, downright hopeless. It’s perfect; probably the most spot-on amalgam of Millennial hipster sensibility ever created. Josh Tillman, under the pseudonym Father John Misty, has given us something so obscenely unique that it’s impossible to parse whether it’s genuine or a parody of the hipster mentality. Either way, it’s undeniably good. Lyrics conjure vivid images of passionate, disaffected young lovers amidst a swirling 21st century shit storm. The poetry is top-notch, striking a balance between age-old romantic notions of prior generations and the nihilistic ambivalence that is a product of the mounting futility of the future thrust upon the young. “The future can’t be real, I barely know how long a moment is unless we’re naked, getting high on the mattress while the global market crashes, as death fills the streets…” Tillman sings on the opening title track; sentiments surely shared by a sizeable portion of the Millennial generation. 

Despite the blasé nonchalance with regard to the situation, the construction of the album is really something to marvel at. Grandiose arrangements and chamber-filling vocals elevate the tracks into being practically chapel-worthy. The arrangements gild the tracks, which otherwise evoke a great deal of ugliness. In the same way, large numbers of the album’s target generation, whether knowingly or unknowingly, tend to gild their lives with casual sex, drugs and partying as a means to dull the perpetual sting of uncertainty. And who is anyone to blame them?

*image; cover art for the album I Love You, Honeybear by the artist Father John Misty