Father John Misty - Mahashmashana

Conciseness is not a concept that’s ever been readily associated with Josh Tillman’s work and it seems a strange word to associate with a record that unwinds gradually, deliberately, its eight tracks having an average length of over six minutes. And yet, something about ’Mahashmashana’ feels succinct; there is a clarity of vision here, as well as a willingness to cut loose stylistically, that means it avoids some of the past pitfalls of Father John Misty records. It takes its title from mahāśmaśāna, the Sanskrit word for “great burial ground, all things put going thither”, and into this particular furnace Tillman throws a smorgasbord of different ideas and melds something cogent from them. There is groove and strut to ‘She Cleans Up’, and jazzy slow-burn storytelling on ‘Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose’. On the album’s lead single, ‘Screamland’, he crafts a seven-minute, softly psych-inflected wonder, incorporating a soaring chorus to underscore the song’s themes of redemption and love’s power in the face of adversity. He is on powerful lyrical form here, having learned to get out of his own way after the overblown, too-clever-for-its-own-good ‘Pure Comedy’; his writing has improved palpably with every release since, and across the board, ’Mahashmashana’ might be his best to date, an album that ploughs a relentlessly adventurous furrow while striking a compelling balance between the epic and the intimate.