Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear

Joshua Tillman (born May 3, 1981) is an American folk singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter, currently performing under the moniker Father John Misty. Tillman is a former member of indie rock bands Saxon Shore and Fleet Foxes. I Love You, Honeybear is Tillman's second studio album as Father John Misty, the first being 2012's Fear Fun.

In a recent interview Tillman said, "The subject matter is definitely more intense. It’s all about love and sex and death. I think lyrically it’s a little bit more refined. I’ve had a chance to expand and develop what I want to achieve lyrically. It’s called I Love You, Honeybear and that will be the first track on the album. I’m very proud of it thus far."

Father John Misty is currently in the process of recording the album.

I Love You, Honeybear
Chateau Lobby #9
The Night Josh Tillman Came to Your Apartment
Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Old Thirsty Crow
Strange Encounter
We Met at the Store
Bored in the USA
Funny Girls
I Hope My Friends are Somewhere Smiling
This Atom Bomb and Me

Father John Misty—the former Fleet Foxes member Josh Tillman—has announced the follow-up to his great 2012 album Fear Fun. I Love You, Honeybear is out February 9 in Europe via Bella Union and February 10 everywhere else via Sub Pop.

In addition to the standard digital, CD, and 2xLP editions, the album will receive a limited edition deluxe 2xLP alternate cover on tricolor vinyl housed in something called a "Dioramic, Meta-Musical Funtime gatefold jacket". All CDs and LPs will come with a fold-out poster featuring photos by Emma Tillman, design from Alia Penner, and extensive “Exercises for Listening” written by Josh Tillman. CD and LP pre-orders will come with eight demos on cassette while supplies last.

The LP's press release comes with a letter from Tillman detailing the album's concept. Spoiler: The word "blammo" is used frequently and effectively:

“I Love You, Honeybear was recorded all through 2013 to 2014 in Los Angeles with producer Jonathan Wilson, who I also recorded and produced 2012’s Fairly Fun with. There’s a case to be made that it sounds and acts a bit like solo-era John Lennon, Scott Walker, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, and Dory Previn, while taking more than a few cues from Woody Allen, Kurt Vonnegut, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Muhammad Ali. It has a decidedly more soulful presence than Fear Fun, due in no small part to the fact that I am truly singing my ass off all over this motherfucker. The album is really characterized by the scope and ambition of the arrangements. Nearly every tune is augmented by something special, be it orchestral strings, a mariachi band, questionable electronic drum solos, ragtime jazz combos, soul singers, or what have you. I’m pretty sure there’s a sitar in there somewhere. Blammo.

“I Love You, Honeybear is a concept album about a guy named Josh Tillman who spends quite a bit of time banging his head against walls, cultivating weak ties with strangers and generally avoiding intimacy at all costs. This all serves to fuel a version of himself that his self-loathing narcissism can deal with. We see him engaging in all manner of regrettable behavior.

“In a parking lot somewhere he meets Emma, who inspires in him a vision of a life wherein being truly seen is not synonymous with shame, but possibly true liberation and sublime, unfettered creativity. These ambitions are initially thwarted as jealousy, self-destruction and other charming human character traits emerge. Josh Tillman confesses as much all throughout.

“The album progresses, sometimes chronologically, sometimes not, between two polarities: the first of which is the belief that the best love can be is finding someone who is miserable in the same way you are and the end point being that love isn't for anyone who isn't interested in finding a companion to undertake total transformation with. I won't give away the ending, but sex, violence, profanity and excavations of the male psyche abound.

“My ambition, aside from making an indulgent, soulful, and epic sound worthy of the subject matter, was to address the sensuality of fear, the terrifying force of love, the unutterable pleasures of true intimacy, and the destruction of emotional and intellectual prisons in my own voice. Blammo.

“This material demanded a new way of being made, and it took a lot of time before the process revealed itself. The massive, deranged shmaltz I heard in my head, and knew had to be the sound of this record, originated a few years ago while Emma and I were hallucinating in Joshua Tree; the same week I wrote the title track. I chased that sound for the entire year and half we were recording. The means by which it was achieved bore a striking resemblance to the travails, abandon and transformation of learning how to love and be loved; see and be seen. There: I said it. Blammo.”

Here's his new track on Letterman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIFrG_6fySg

01 I Love You, Honeybear
02 Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)
03 True Affection
04 The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.
05 When You’re Smiling and Astride Me
06 Nothing Good Ever Happens At the Goddamn Thirsty Crow
07 Strange Encounter
08 The Ideal Husband
09 Bored In The USA
10 Holy Shit
11 I Went To The Store One Day