J. Tillman, aka Father John Misty, has a sophomore album en route and a letter to his fans is already here. The Father’s follow up to 2012’s Fear Fun is called I Love You, Honeybear and is slated for release on February 10th of 2015. Backed by a small orchestra, Tillman performed a song off the album called, “Bored in The USA,” on Letterman. You can check that out here.
According to his label, Sub Pop, all CD and LP formats will come with a fold-out poster featuring a collage of FJM’s wife, Emma Tillman’s intimate pics and an extensive “Exercises for Listening” written by the Father himself. Additionally, CD and LP preorders will come with 8 demos on cassette while supplies last. As for wearable merch, there will be two new t-shirts available as standalone items, or as part of a bundle with preorders of the new album. The album tracklist includes “I Love You, Honeybear,” “Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins),” “True Affection,” “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.,” “When You’re Smiling And Astride Me,” “Nothing Good Ever Happens At the Goddamn Thirsty Crow,” “Strange Encounter,” “The Ideal Husband,”“Bored In The USA,” “Holy Shit,” and “I Went To The Store One Day.” To get an early order in for I Love You, Honeybear, you can visit the Misty website.
If you picked up a copy of Fear Fun, you will recall the novel FJM published inside on two posters. Tillman is known for providing listeners with his prose. Accompanying the press release of the new album is a letter that the former Fleet Fox has provided us, with that detail some of the thoughts behind his latest effort.
In the letter, he discusses where the album was recorded (Los Angeles) and likens the sound and attitude of his work to other singers, artists and even an athlete. He also ends most of his paragraphs with “Blammo.”
“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,” writes Tillman.
FJM goes on to explain that the goal of his work is 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.”
Tillman also reveals that it took a year and a half of recording for him to finally find what he was looking for sound-wise. He closes his letter by comparing the creative process to “the travails, abandon and transformation of learning how to love and be loved; see and be seen.”