Best New Tracks - Pitchfork: Father John Misty Turns Humble on “Real Love Baby” |  |
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Posted: 01 Aug 2016 02:50 PM PDT
Much like Kanye and Taylor, Father John Misty knows how to stay in your news feed even without a new album. Whether he's boosting rose quartz from a ludicrous Echo Park juicery, beard-brawling with the Strand of Oaks guy, or outing Chipotle's ear-coli idea to have him cover the Backstreet Boys—the man also known as Josh Tillman might scan as one walking prank.
But then there's that Father John Misty profoundly saddened by a full festival crowd positioned against the backdrop of a battleship. And it seems less a ploy and more the voicings of a man who feels a painful amount. That's him couched in reverb on "Real Love Baby," a one-off uploaded to Soundcloud in May and now properly released as a single. He might be boasting of having an entire world inside him (and how he tastes), but there's a humbleness and honesty to the song. Like any real love, it's about learning to surrender such power to the other person. He may call her honey, but Tillman also inverts that old metaphor of being the King Bee. Instead, he sweetly sings of being the flower, his betrothed the bee.  |
