Father John Misty, alias of American musician and former Fleet Fox drummer Josh Tillman, is something of indie rock’s own Diogenes. His quirky, lightly retro aural signature, coupled with his pervasively sardonic sense of lyrical irony together define a deeply idiosyncratic artistry, with the latter element in particular positioning him as something of a court jester in the Kingdom of Contemporary Indie. His latest album Mahashmashana sees Misty backing up his trademark thorny witticism by doubling down on old-school sonic aesthetics – a combination perfectly encapsulated by “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose.”
“Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose” is at it’s core a classic-sounding chunk of tuneful, piano-and-guitar-driven melodicism, underscored by a colorful and ever-present orchestral accompaniment. The phrase “Beatlesque” immediately spills out to describe this particular union of elements, though “Accidental Dose” owes much, if not more, to later additions in that particular musical idiom the Fab Four helped to define. Tillman’s soulful vocal is more Joe Cocker than McCartney, and song’s almost playful arrangement recalls something that could be found on Nilsson Schmilsson as much as it does, say, “I Am The Walrus.” Its tuneful, chromatic piano intro and brief, bluesy guitar licks immediately engender a certain sense of familiarity that the rest of the song plays both to and against, while the orchestration accentuates this impish dichotomy by frequently becoming less of a sonorous pulse and more of a strident punch – like musical cardiac arrest. Misty’s words, meanwhile, tell a tale of “clown portraits,” “publicists,” and “Pynchon yuppies,” that reads something like a printout of Dylan’s verse viewed through a funhouse mirror darkly. The total effect is that of an off-color, not-unfriendly gibe shared between old familiars, in this case one that Misty and his listeners are in on together.
The music video paired with “Josh Tillman and The Accidental Dose” sports a simplicity that affirms the song’s vintage, back-to-basics production and subtly acerbic take on rock and roll antiquity. By literally being nothing more than Misty and co. miming the song in live performance while dressed in suitably era-agnostic garb, it affects a sense of being plucked for circulation from an archetypical concert film; something like Father John Misty doesThe Last Waltz.