Father John Misty - "Ballad of the Dying Man"

Pure Comedy came out in April, and ever since I've been struggling to wrap my head around it. Pretentiousness, concept albums, long-winded singer-songwriters, me me me ... none of that stuff turns me off normally, but there's something about Father John Misty's third record that leaves me cold.

As a document of where he's at emotionally after his nervous-newlywed sophomore release I Love You, Honeybear, the resolutely melancholy Pure Comedy suggests ... well, I don't pretend to know a thing about the man's personal life, but I would argue that maybe things aren't going so well on the home front. (Or maybe that's just how I read "Leaving LA," which feels like a farewell to Los Angeles as well as to the promise that it once held for an artist and his artist wife.) Regardless, this album's big-swing approach to its major themes -- most of which I'm aligned with him spiritually on -- too often play out as declarations from a guy who sounds like he thinks he's the first guy to come up with them. Not only does the music keep declaring its cleverness, the lyricist does, too.

So why may Pure Comedy still make my Top 10? Because when I stop fighting with the album, when I just let it play in the background, the beauty and inventiveness keep sneaking up on me. "Oh, that's a really good song," I'll think. "And so is that one. And that little passage there sure is lovely." And so on. As a friend, Father John Misty would probably be exhausting. As a songwriter who's trying to find new ways to express old ideas, he never stops thinking, never stops trying a new angle, often finds the grace note that makes me reassess the whole endeavor.

Father John Misty - "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)"

I've been thinking about Father John Misty's sophomore release I Love You, Honeybear ever since it came out, which is now almost exactly a year ago. A concept album about Mr. Misty (a.k.a. Josh Tillman) getting married, the record ought to be in my wheelhouse -- I'm unabashedly pro-love -- and yet Honeybear never quite clicked with me.

Why not? I gave the album a new bunch of spins lately after its strong showing in Pazz & Jop to maybe figure out why. Ultimately, I think Honeybear begins and ends beautifully, but the middle section sags under the weight of too many fussily-arranged tunes. It's a marriage album in which Tillman's cleverness sometimes outpaces his melodies or his insights. At its best, the record resembles something that Eels would do -- E has a penchant for utilizing concepts to give a collection of songs a structuring device -- but Honeybear's candid acknowledgment of the panic/excitement involved in saying "I do" is a bit too conceptual for my taste. Sentimentality can be wince-inducing, but so can manic, self-conscious irony.

That said, there are plenty of stunning tracks. "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)" is one of them, and this bit always, always, always kills me...

First time you let me stay the night despite your own rules 
You took off early to go cheat your way through film school 
You left a note in your perfect script
"Stay as long as you want"
And I haven’t left your bed since

2015 Pazz & Jop Poll Predictions

I'm still mortified by how poorly I did predicting last year's Pazz & Jop Top 10. (I really didn't think Black Messiah's complicated musical landscapes would have had sufficient time to sink in with enough voters to carry the day.) Nonetheless, I feel more confident in this year's guesses, mostly because I don't think No. 1 is in doubt at all....

1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
3. Grimes, Art Angels
4. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell 
5. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
6. Jamie xx, In Colour
7. Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
8. Tame Impala, Currents 
9. Adele, 25
10. Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion 

Other albums I considered for the Top 10: Vulnicura, Summertime '06 and The Epic. We'll know how well I did when The Village Voice releases the poll results on Wednesday. I'm expecting To Pimp a Butterfly to win by a large margin. As for the singles poll, I'm torn between Drake's "Hotline Bling" or Adele's "Hello," but my gut says "Hotline Bling."

(Update: The results are out now and, yes, I nailed the top album and top single. I got eight of the Top 10 albums correct, overestimating Tame Impala's and Adele's chances and not giving enough credence to Vince Staples and Kamasi Washington. Overall, I'm surprised by the relatively soft showing of Ms. Adkins: 25 was a paltry No. 35, while "Hello" tied for No. 9. My ballot is here.)

Father John Misty - "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings"

This week's Friday Video presents an interesting dilemma: What do you do when you really like a song but really don't like its video?

Father John Misty is the recording name for Josh Tillman, who used to be the drummer for Fleet Foxes. "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" isn't very Fleet Foxes-y, though, which I consider a good thing. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with them, but as Tillman explained, "I don’t even like wound-licking music, I want to listen to someone rip their arm off and beat themselves with it."

"Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" shouldn't be confused with death metal, but it's powerfully moody and insistent in a way that Fleet Foxes isn't. Anyway, I dig it. As for the video, well, it violates a few rules I have about the medium. First, its plot is way too complicated; it gets in the way of listening to the song, which has something of a plot itself. Then there's the problem of hiring the hip indie actress (in this case, Aubrey Plaza) to be your video's star. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it just seems like some sort of attempt on the artist's part to get an endorsement from a particular audience niche. So even if you hate the video, you might like the song. I hope you do, anyway.

And thanks to the invaluable KEXP for introducing me to "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings" in the first place.