A week after announcing a new album Pure Comedy and releasing new single of the same name, Father John Misty has returned with a second offering, Ballad of the Dying Man.
So far, the two singles released showcase a familiar yet expanded take on the folksy sound his fans know and love. The new single’s title is pretty telling; set to an easygoing, pop-soul melody which later breaks out into gospel-style backing vocals, Josh Tillman delivers assorted pertinent comments on social value and priorities by narrating the story of the dying man. It’s all a little bleak, perhaps even a tad Black Mirror: “Eventually the dying man takes his final breath, but first checks his newsfeed to see what he’s about to miss. It occurs to him only late in the game, we leave as clueless as we came.”
The album is to be the highly anticipated follow-up to 2014’s acclaimed I Love You Honeybear, which provided Tillman with a platform to project his distinctive, notably self-aware, darkly comic persona to the masses.
The album was written in 2015 and was co-produced by Tillman and Jonathan Wilson. The album title comes as no surprise, considering his comedic antics – notably his stage banter, joke-y jingles and troll pranks – have probably done more for his career his music.
Pure Comedy, which is a massive 75 minutes long, will be released on April 7, 2017 via Sub Pop/Inertia.
Father John Misty
Pure Comedy tracklist
1. Pure Comedy
2. Total Entertainment Forever
3. Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before The Revolution
4. Ballad of the Dying Man
5. Birdie
6. Leaving LA
7. A Bigger Paper Bag
8. When The God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay
9. Smoochie
10. Two Wildly Different Perspectives
11. The Memo
12. So I’m Growing old on Magic Mountain
13. In Twenty Years or So
Album artwork: Ed Steed
Cover image: Guy Lowndes