Fear Fun

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Father John Misty is the nom-de-plume of Josh Tillman, who has been releasing solo albums since 2003 and who left Seattle's Fleet Foxes after playing drums from 2008-2011. Fear Fun consists of such disparate elements as Waylon Jennings, Harry Nilsson, Arthur Russell, and Physical Graffiti, often within the same song. Tillman's voice has never been better, while the music maintains a dark, mysterious yet playful quality. Fear Fun is Father John Misty's Sub Pop debut and was produced by Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes).

REVIEW
For all their stark and fragile resonance, neither album that Joshua Tillman had previously released in the UK – Vacilando Territory Blues and Year in the Kingdom, both issued in 2009 – suggested Fleet Foxes’ drummer was destined for a solo career.



In fact, as diligent Josh fans knew, the latter of the two was already his sixth; and a seventh, Singing Ax, followed in 2010. Still, when Josh decided to leave the über-successful Seattlites, it seemed a bit risky. But he clearly knew something we didn’t.



Tillman’s first album as Father John Misty takes giant steps to underline his credentials, with a broader ambition, vocal reach and emotional gravitas. Tillman claims this was the result of leaving Seattle with “enough [magic] mushrooms to choke a horse,” and settling in Laurel Canyon, LA’s epicentre of soft-rock dreams, though another theory posits that his younger brother Zach could be the catalyst.



Zach had adopted an alias, Pearly Gate Music, before Josh; and his album of the same name (also on Bella Union) was partially indebted to Big Star’s seminal Third/Sisters Lovers opus, just as Fear Fun is. It’s clear Josh has sidelined his Neil Young-isms just as he had settled in Young’s backyard.



The connection to late Big Star lynchpin Alex Chilton is underlined by Fear Fun’s references to Jesus (Tillman considered becoming a pastor before being saved by the Good Lord Rock’n’Roll). These nods begin with Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings, and Tillman mirrors Chilton’s same forages into 50s roots music: for example, on the barroom swing of Tee Pees 1-12.



Not that Fear Fun isn’t its own, inspired brew of, indeed, both fear and fun. It’s located in a Bermuda Triangle of haunted ballads and wired rockers between Chilton, Young’s After the Gold Rush and Fleet Foxes’ lonesome-pine beauty, before Tillman stirs in his own twisted DNA, confessing in I'm Writing a Novel, "I ran down the road, pants down to my knees, screaming.”



Another plus factor is the crack Laurel Canyon session team assembled by producer Jonathan Wilson, which gives Tillman a shifting, expansive backdrop on which to spill his layered, narrative mysteries. Whoever Father John Misty is, he’s a hell of a find.

--Martin Aston

Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window

1: Fun Times in Babylon
2: Nancy from Now On
3: Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings
4: I'm Writing a Novel
5: O I Long to Feel Your Arms Around Me
6: Misty's Nightmares 1 & 2
7: Only Son of the Ladies' Man
8: This Is Sally Hatchet
9: Well, You Can Do It Without Me
10: Now I'm Learning to Love the War
11: Tee Pees 1-12
12: Everyman Needs a Companion

Number of Discs: 1

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