Do you remember 2018? I feel like it’s been eons since that year has been mentioned, but apparently it was when Josh Tillman, a.k.a. Father John Misty, released his last album God’s Favorite Customer. For months, he’s been teasing another project with cryptic, old-school images, but today we finally see what it’s all been leading up to…well, sort of. He’s just announced the follow-up LP, which is called Chloë and the Next 20th Century, and which is out April 8 on Sub Pop. Along with the announcement, Misty has also shared the single “Funny Girl” and a video directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman.
The surreal visual depicts a jellyfish floating through a sepia-toned Hollywood set that looks like Kansas from The Wizard of Oz. Similar to the cinematic classic, the jellyfish encounters a tornado and anxiously floats away from it into another colorful realm where there’s a golden-bricked road. There’s also a field of flowers, which recalls the poppy field scene, as well as an ominous glowing green castle.
As for the song itself, “Funny Girl” is a jazzy ballad about an onlooker charmed by a comic who’s in “the new live-action Cathy” and makes an appearance on Letterman. For a moment, the infatuation borders on creepiness as opposed to star-crossed lovers. “Could you pencil in an industry outsider? / Yeah, you’re young but, baby, you’re not getting younger,” Misty sings in the second verse with a sinister undertone. Later, missed schedule alignment could be read as stalker behavior: “Funny girl / For once your timing wasn’t great / I must have missed you by a day.” So many questions!
Chloë and the Next 20th Century came together last year from August through December, featuring arrangements by Drew Erickson. The album also continues Misty’s work with producer/multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Wilson and engineer/mixer Dave Cerminara, who both worked on God’s Favorite Customer.
Check out the video below, and pre-order the album here.
