Father John Misty's New Song 'Q4' Is Terrific

Yeah, I'm pretty damn excited for the new album.

Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) has a new album coming out on April 8th. It’s Christmas in April, basically, if you’re me. Now can he please just tour and come to Arizona?

Chloë and The Next 20th Century¹ is shaping up to be quite different from Misty’s previous records. The two songs we’ve heard so far are excellent: great big productions that feel straight out of a musical (“Funny Girl”) or a movie soundtrack (“Q4”). A massive departure from his most recent album, the sparse and depressing God’s Favorite Customer.

‘Q4’ is more upbeat, if just as cynical. The energy is more Chateau Lobby #4 than Disappointing Diamonds. You could really edit this song over a scene in Harold and Maude or The Graduate and it would fit right in. Misty, are you composing a soundtrack for some auteur filmmaker or something? Inquiring minds want to know.

The lyrics are classic Misty, too, cutting and witty. The Q4, of course, refers to the fourth financial quarter for some unnamed company in the entertainment industry. A somewhat cynical take on how art is used for profits, churned out and chewed up by the masses, raved about until the film adaptation is a disaster and the creator falls out of favor, outed for her “privilege.”

Good stuff.

Simone writes little of much consequence
Unless black box theater’s how you pay the rent
A new work of some semi-memoir sits
Inside the weekend book editors desk
And while they have not mentioned it
She must watch roses get thrown at less
Oh, the indignity
 
It was just the thing for their Q4
“Deeply funny” was the rave refrain
It was just the thing for their Q4
It’ll be on stands before the holidays
 
Her sister was not much long for this world
She danced as if a dancer danced as if
As if she had a body to sustain
As if an audience to entertain
This ironic distance kept her sane
While her vessel sailed away
It was all very literary
 
And the truth was
 
It was just the thing for their Q4
What’s “deeply funny” mean anyhow?
It was just the thing for their Q4
These are the stories that we need right now
 
How could she compete?
(I’m sure she wouldn’t mind)
With a memory such as she
(But who else then I)
Leigh died so many months ago
(Could write the story of her life?)
“By now this tragedy’s my own!”
 
Oh
 
It was just the thing for their Q4
“Deeply funny” was the rave refrain
It was just the thing for their Q4
It’ll be on stands before the holidays
 
It was just the thing for their Q4
The film adaptation was a total mess
It was just the thing for their Q4
’Til she was outed for her privilege
 
It was just a thing for their Q4
Can’t see her brother now unsupervised
It was just the thing for their Q4
Her family switched care right when she inquired…

And here’s “Funny Girl” which is less catchy but really feels like it’d be at home on the stage:

1. Yes, I ordered the ‘Deluxe Vinyl Box’ because I’m a shameless Father John Misty fanboy. I’ve seen him twice. Once at M3F in Phoenix and once at Red Rocks in Colorado. Both times were stunning live performances, among the best I’ve ever experienced. As much as I love his recordings, his live shows are something special.