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"God's Favorite Customer" (or Mr Tillman's Wild Ride) is the fourth studio album by American musician Josh Tillman under the stage name Father John Misty. It was released by Sub Pop and Bella Union on June 1, 2018.
It features a variety of musical collaborators, including The Haxan Cloak, Mark Ronson, Weyes Blood, and members of Tillman's touring band.
User Album Review
Josh Tillman returns as Father John Misty on God's Favorite Customer, blurring the lines between artist and alter-ego and trading humour for heartbreak on a concise record that's as sombre as it is satisfying. "I'm treading water as I bleed to death" Tillman sings on the opener "Hangout at the Gallows," setting the tone for his most raw effort as Father John Misty yet — it's an emotionally wounded, ambitious attempt to capture a man at his most desperate, all in under 40 minutes.
Sonically, God's Favorite Customer follows Tillman's usual blend of piano- and guitar-driven folk-rock balladry with masterful production. Even in the dense mixes, every instrument punches through, heard without becoming overbearing. There's enough variety mixed in to keep the instrumentals fresh, with luxurious string passages, warm organ swells, overdriven guitar riffs, some harmonica and even a fuzzed-out synth tone.
Tillman's latest record may not quite reach the mountainous heights of Pure Comedy, although there's an argument to be made that it digs itself just as deep in the opposite direction. As Tillman muses on "Disappointing Diamonds Are the Rarest of Them All," "Does everybody have to be the greatest story ever told?" Perhaps that's the best case he makes for God's Favorite Customer. Not every record needs to topple the last with even more epic instrumentation and colossal wit.
Reviewed by Brandon Choghri for exclaim.ca.
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