I Love, Honeybear by Father John Misty
It seems impossible to try to narrow down the absolute best albums of the decade, so I won’t. Instead, I’ll talk about the album I listened to the most, the record that left the biggest impression on me, and the one that speaks the most to the artist that created it; for me, that’s without a doubt I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty.
Released in early 2015 to much critical praise, I Love You, Honeybear is more than just a top-to-bottom romantic folk record gushing with infectious melodies, memorable synth lines, earnest marital confessions, and goddamn poetic lyrics. It is also a concept record that perfectly encapsulates when a jaded and cynical character sets aside his sarcastic wit for unabashed love. Father John Misty, the pseudo persona of musician Josh Tillman, made a name for himself in 2012 with the rambunctious and tongue-in-cheek Fear Fun – and some of that humor remains on Honeybear.
Check out photos from Father John Misty from The Mann Center in Philadelphia in 2017.
“The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt” and “Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow” include conversations between Tillman and a fictionalized woman who nearly dies at his house and doesn’t understand the definition of “literally,” as well as imagined scenario chest-puffing when a man hits on Tillman’s wife at a bar. Much of it is raw, insecure, wry, and also quite funny.
Despite the humor, the really powerful tracks that stand out to me on Honeybear are the ones that capture the exhilarating, life-changing, heart-wrenching experience of falling in love. Written over the course of time that Tillman met, wooed, and married his eventual wife, the album says so much in its opening lines with visceral depictions of a dizzying romance swirling in a continually contentious world: “Oh Honeybear, Honeybear, Honeybear / Mascara, blood, ash, and cum / on the Rorschach sheets where we make love / Honeybear, Honeybear, Honeybear / Fuck the world, damn straight malaise / It may be just us who feel this way.”
Instant-classic songs like “Bored in the USA” and “Holy Shit” capture millennial and late-stage-capitalism anxiety with exquisite grace, while tracks like “Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins),” “The Ideal Husband,” and “I Went To The Store One Day” truly are some of the most beautiful love songs ever written by a man who both fears and embraces intimacy, and values the concept of forever even though he doesn’t understand it. I Love You, Honeybear reminds us that falling in love while the world is coming to an end isn’t just a nice idea but could actually save our lives.
-Kat Manos
