Father John Misty – ‘Mahashmashana’ album review: each version of the artist moving as one
THE SKINNY: No one makes music like Father John Misty does. Since his breakout in 2012 with Fear Fun, his style has been endlessly referenced, with countless attempts to replicate it. But on his sixth album, Mahashmashana, he makes it clear that his vision is his own and his inspiration comes from nowhere but himself, the voice inside his head and the way it reads the world around him.
On each album, Father John Misty has peered out at the world from behind his pen. Sometimes, all he could focus on was the one lover in front of him or his anxiety regarding the industry he existed in. He’s always written about that, sometimes through the eyes of his moniker character and sometimes allowing Josh Tillman to peek through. But on his last album, Chloe and the Next 20th Century, he went all out. As the collapse of society, as we know it, seemed to get on top of him, he retreated further into this charismatic character than ever. Tillman was locked away as he called in a whole orchestra and seemed to go into hiding in a grand ballroom. He was content to neurotically avoid the end of days by dancing around in a suit until the apocalypse arrived.
But Mahashmashana sees him reemerging, gathering up all the pieces of himself and using them all to attempt to untangle the complex mess we have left. With the enduring lyrical wit of his early albums, the outgoing instrumentals of his latest efforts, and the razor-sharp social commentary he harnessed best on Pure Comedy, this new release sees every bit of him working as one for a release that’s expansive, epic, cinematic, silly in some places but still somehow refined.
With all his various evolutions in conversation, the Father John Misty we meet on Mahashmashana, especially on the album’s titular track, feels like a kind of spiritual era George Harrison if he was washed out in Vegas. He’s as if a countercultural hero was stuck doing a big band show in an opera house, refusing to compromise on his edginess but still surrendering to the lure to do something flashy. For those who love him, that will all read as the simple fact – this is Father John Misty at his finest.
With the shortest song sitting at four minutes and the opening track clocking in at almost ten, it’s an album that demands attention. But at no point does that feel like a tough ask. As always, the artist manages to capture this kind of cult-leader-like swagger that has listeners hypnotised. He’s pouring out poetry here on hefty topics of selfishness, misogyny, love, the difficulty of loving, and society’s various exploitations and contradictions, all handled with so much style.
Father John Misty singing about the collapse of the modern world is like Elvis belting out a love song. And as the artist gathers up all the best bits of every direction he’s ever taken, this new one is fueled by uncompromised greatness.
For fans of: Father John Misty, Josh Tillman and J. Tillman.
A note from the manager of his pre-apocalyptic Vegas ballroom: So you won’t be needing the jazz band anymore?
Mahashmashana track by track
Release date: 22nd November 2024 | Producer: Josh Tillman and Drew Erickson | Label: Bella Union
‘Mahashmashana’: A truly cinematic and epic opener – but who would expect anything less from Father John Misty? At an expansive, nearly ten-minute length, it doesn’t drag in the slightest as the artist once again proves his explorative power matched with a sound that sees every other era come together into this new one. Singing, “Love’s the birthright of young people”, it packs a lyrical punch, too. [5/5]
‘She Cleans Up’: If the sleaze rock sound of this track doesn’t have you convinced, read the lyrics. Human selfishness, exploitation and misogyny are all handled with a stylish flare that only FJM can pull off with such swagger. [4.5/5]
‘John Tillman and the Accidental Dose’: Returning to his tradition of using his real name to describe odd, out-of-body experiences, he ponders his real life from a cool distance. A perfect follow-up to 2015’s ‘The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt’ and 2018’s ‘Mr Tillman’, but with an instrumentation that leaves both in its dust. [4.5/5]
‘Mental Health’: The ultimate example of this album’s unifying power. It has the rhythm of an I Love You, Honeybear track, the sharp social commentary of Pure Comedy and the theatrical, cinematic instrumental flair of Chloe and the Next 20th Century as the artist puts every chapter and corner of his talent into this new release. [4.5/5]
‘Screamland’: If his last album was him resigning himself to the death of society and calling in a big band to play at the end of the days, ‘Screamland’ feels like the blood-curling yell of waking back up from that bad dream and trying to grasp at any hope remaining. With some devastating lines on the flawed nature of humans and their endeavours to love one another and live happily, it’s matched by his most dramatic instrumental yet. [4.5/5]
‘Being You’: A new dating anthem from the master of neurotic yet sleazy takes on romance. Father John Misty shifts his hand across the table, grabs someone else’s and asks, “Can you tell me how it feels being you?” as his quest for connection and a desire for an end to our modern sense of alienation. [4/5]
‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All’: An undiluted example of Father John Misty’s unique way of making a heavy conversation into a post-ironic hip-shaker. As with every other track, it’s instrumentally great and lyrically sharp in which Josh Tillman dares to write the phrase “a himbo ken doll” into his poetry. [4.5/5]
‘Summer’s Gone’: The shortest song but the most beautiful as the artist plays us out with a kind of aubade, a song sung with the breaking of the morning. In Father John Misty’s case, his finale draws to an end a night of heavy dreams, attempts at affection and chaotic contemplations that the rest of the album holds as he toasts to the end of things and the need to keep finding joy in the on-going death of the world around us. [4.5/5]
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