The New Father John Misty Smells Like Vintage Hollywood Musicals And Twenty-Twenties Swing

No guitar, no drums, no bass line but a croaking trumpet as an intro. And if the sweet unison strings of title track Chloe you know that Josh – Father John Misty – Tillman has been inspired by other times. It smells like vintage Hollywood musicals and 1920’s swing. In the bossa nova of Olvidado a piano pings and you can almost hear the olives bobbing in the martini glasses. On his fifth album, Tillman presents himself, with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilson, as a craftsman who makes historical replicas. But frolicking with (show) genres from bygone times also automatically creates a distance from the singer-songwriter and his or her souls. Chloe’s romance is miles away from the candor spell of Tillman’s previous quintessential singer-songwriter album God’s Favorite Customer† The songs are nevertheless examples of a gifted songwriter and dare to flirt with The Great American Songbook† Only a crooning Tillman sometimes falls short in vocal expression.