I Love You, Honeybear.

It seems that through my posts on different albums, artists and ideas I have seriously neglected a great genre that has truly stood the test of time, and has rebounded in popularity and relevance on numerous occasions, the eternal art, that is folk. An album was released recently that really helped me delve back into this somewhat personally neglected genre – a masterpiece by Father John Misty – the comically titled, and even more hilariously scripted record, I Love You, Honeybear.

A quick think into folk. Folk music is very odd, it speaks to lots of different people for a lot of different reasons. It can be seen as soothing, calm music to relax too, and conversely it can be seen as the original genre of modern dissident music – just look at early Dylan or even better, Woody Guthrie. It has ties to rock and psychedelic music, music of the disenfranchised and the rebellious, but it’s also not apart from country and western music, that of (for the most part) patriotism and rural brotherhood. Most artists that play in this sphere these days oscillate amongst the different influences, and add more. FJM is no different in this regard and uses a lifetime of listening to records from gospel to electronica to inform his styles.

Father John Misty came onto the scene in his current incarnation roughly three years ago with the 2012 release, Fear Fun. However the person behind the name, Joshua Tillman has been recording music both solo and in a group for over ten years. Whether you know him as Father John Misty, J. Tillman, or the percussionist/backup vocalist from Fleet Foxes, no doubt you respect the man for his craft. In his new album he puts it all on the line and bares his soul in a double-down gamble of making a concept album about his love life with his wife Emma. Concept albums in themselves can be tricky, but normally the literary distance between artist and subject allows for a smooth storytelling. Writing about something as close and personal as one’s marriage and relationship without a framing narrative can be very exposing, and Tillman himself had to overcome stage fright renewed by being so blunt about certain aspects of his life.

Tillman starts his album off strong, with a blustering exclamation of love to his wife, that personally is slightly embarrassing to catch myself singing along to as ‘honeybear’ has really only entered my vocabulary because of this song (I swear). But goddamn it works, and just when you think that everything is loving and tender the lyrics take a wonderfully twisted turn towards the absurd which truly enriches the song. The dichotomy between his soaring vocals and dark lyrics is definitive of the age in which we live, where honest smiles muddle a complex understanding of the life we live in. The modern condition means knowing of all the bad in the world, but also knowing that crawling into depression does nothing to combat it, so we might as well celebrate life as we see it, as we know it.

“Oh honeybear, honeybear, honeybear,
mascara, blood, ash and cum,
On the Rorschach sheets where we make love”

Not just about the celebration of love however, Tillman sings deeply about the struggles that confound people trying to recreate courtship as they learned it but with the new twists that come from being a 21st century couple. True Affection deals with the anxiety and stress that comes from trying to connect with someone in the digital age, where texting and instant messaging dominate the communicative landscape. Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Goddamn Thirsty Crow describes the dual external pressures faced by couples when trying to get out and have a good time, such as FJM trying to keep a healthy distance from female fans and also the stress that him and his wife feel when men pursue her as he’s on tour. These songs speak not only to our minds, but to our souls as well, Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins) is one of the most powerful songs I’ve heard in awhile, it courses through my veins and I lose myself in it. Much like like the title track, it is able to fuse both genuine affection and humour to make the listener connect through love and release through laughter.

“I wanna take you in the kitchen,
lift up your wedding dress someone was probably murdered in,
So bourgeoisie to keep waiting,
dating for twenty years just feels pretty civilian”

Two of my favourite songs on the album depart from the major themes of two people travelling through contemporary life together and take a step back and talk about society at large. Bored in the USA and Holy Shit act as compasses for the world Tillman lives in. With the former being a sarcastic ode to the country that birthed him and the anthemic songs that exist in the national conscious. (As an aside, Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. was not meant to be a patriotic anthem, the demo version matches the lyrics much more and it is meant as a critique of American nationalism) The latter song reminds me of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire, and enumerates the ideas, items and icons that exist today and that we all know and understand. It is both sacrilegious and enlightened, idealistic and cynical, encouraging and condemning.

“Ancient holy wars
Dead religions, holocausts
New regimes, old ideas
That’s now myth, that’s now real
Original sin, genetic fate
Revolutions, spinning plates
It’s important to stay informed
The commentary to comment on”

Throughout the album it is hard to tell where genuine emotion stops and satire and tongue-in-cheek references. But the main point is that it doesn’t really matter, since it is through the eye (or ear) of the beholder that art takes form and meaning. One person may laugh at the same verse that bring a person to tear, because the passion is the same, and this record, above all else, is passionate.