After the release of
God's Favorite Customer
in 2018,
Josh Tillman
's rakish
Father John Misty
persona mysteriously vanished from the public sphere. No longer a frequently entertaining/self-annihilating pull-quote machine,
FJM
let the music do the talking on 2022's divergent
Chloë and the Next 20th Century
, a bold and often beautiful set of songs steeped in Old Hollywood bombast, '70s singer/songwriter philosophizing, and
Lynch
-ian surrealism.
Mahashmashana
, which takes its name from a Sanskrit word meaning "great cremation ground," offers a more concise evisceration of the self than its predecessor, administering the same musical opulence while digging deeper into themes of ego death and existentialism. Both philosophies loom large in the nearly ten-minute title track, a gorgeous, midtempo pop hymn reminiscent of
George Harrison
's "All Things Must Pass" and "Isn't It a Pity" that sees
Tillman
offer up the koan "Mahashmashana/All is silent/And in the next universal dawn/Won't have to do the corpse dance with these arms" before being swept away in a heavenly, saxophone-generated rogue wave. The equally transcendent "Screamland" follows a similar trajectory but with a more contemporary flair that suggests
Phoebe Bridgers
' "I Know the End" by way of
the Killers
. 1970s pop and soft rock have always been driving forces in the
oeuvre, but never have they been applied as confidently or bereft of a wink as they are on the wry,
Nilsson
-esque "Mental Health," the swaggering disco banger "I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All," or the smoky, lava lamp-lit "Being You" -- credit to frequent collaborator
Drew Erickson
, whose sympathetic string arrangements find the sweet spot between
Wally Stott
(
Scott Walker
) and
Max Steiner
RKO Radio Pictures
).
, despite its weighty poeticism and nostalgic sonic grandeur, feels rooted in the here and now.
is still a keen and sardonic observer of the human condition, but here he directs the proceedings with a gravitas that finally feels earned. ~ James Christopher Monger