For listeners of Father John Misty, also known as Josh Tillman, it can almost be expected that every album he puts out will transport us into an equally dream-like and film-like state. “Chloë and the Next 20th Century”, his fifth studio album which came out recently in April 2022, held up these expectations to a T while expanding Misty’s dreamscape to a whole new realm.
We received a glimpse of this album’s magic with four singles released earlier this year: “Funny Girl”, “Q4”, “Goodbye Mister Blue”, and “Kiss Me (I Loved You)”, all of which giving off equally mesmerizing yet equally unique feelings from each other. For example, “Goodbye Mister Blue” gave off a “folk-esque” vibe, with the soft guitar melodies recurring throughout, while “Funny Girl” provides a completely different “Old Hollywood” feeling, complete with classic piano and lilting flute instrumentals. Father John Misty can seemingly do it all–he can master an album that makes me sometimes feel like I am walking down a lit-up street to the sounds of a midnight jazz club nearby, and other times feel like I am on set of a vintage film or musical. Whatever visuals they evoke for you, I can attest that the feelings the album provides are captivating.
Although Father John Misty creates a wonderful mood for his listeners, it is really his lyrics that are especially noteworthy. It seems that with every new album Tillman creates, his lyrics become more and more daring, smart, and simply addictive to analyze. If you listen closely to the lyrics of the album as a whole, you would notice that each song tells a different story (mostly of couples, people pining after each other, or tragic deaths). The stories are all related in some ways, but lack continuity throughout. For example, if you pay attention to lyrical connections, you’ll find that the same narrator who Father John Misty acts as while singing “Chloë” and glorifying her mystique through the words of her ex-boyfriend before her ultimately jumping off a balcony and killing herself (“Summer ended on the balcony//She put on Flight of the Valkyries//At her thirty-first birthday party//Took a leap into the Autumn leaves”), is the same narrator in “Funny Girl” who stalks a female comedian on a talk show (“Funny girl, you seem pretty indifferent//But you knocked me out when you charmed the pants off Letterman”), who is the same narrator whose cat dies at the beginning of “Goodbye Mr. Blue” (“This may be the last time//The last time I put on my shoes//Go down to the corner//And buy the damn cat the expensive food”).
The stories of the narrators, however, don’t align, as well as many other characters’ stories that are present in other lines do not align either. The album as a whole reads like a story or film with a bunch of loopholes and unfinished character arcs that seem to dissipate into thin air once the next song starts. However, this is not a flaw, but an intentional part of the art piece. Pitchfork puts it perfectly when it writes that “Chloë and the Next 20th Century” is less of a storyline based on reality and more of a script based on “the logic of a dream” (Pitchfork, 2022). That’s exactly what it is—the album feels like one of those dreams with recurring characters and rich storylines, yet ones that don’t entirely add up. The deep processing necessary to fully understand the lyrics of the album certainly may not be for everyone, but for me, it is just masterful.
All in all, “Chloë and the Next 20th Century” is the perfect mesh of Vaudeville, Swing, and Classic Hollywood with the most thought-out and purposeful lyrics. I would recommend this album to anyone who was a fan of Tillman’s past albums, or even Lana Del Rey, as she recreated a cover of one of the album’s songs: “Buddy’s Rendezvous”. Below are my favorite songs and lyrics from the album, in case you want just a taste of “Chloë and the Next 20th Century”!
Favorites:
- “Kiss Me (I Loved You)”: “The end will not befall us//The sky will not descend//Life can be more sweet than bitter//If you’ll only let me in”
- “Chloë”: “I would but I can’t//My heart don’t stand a chance//Of even a glance//Her soul is a pitch black expanse”
- “Only A Fool”: “I was a fool when I met you//And, oh, I bet you knew it, too//How else could we stay standing?//All those nights dream-landing//Only a fool would understand”
- “Q4”: “Hеr sister was not much long for this world//She danced as if a dancеr danced as if//As if she had a body to sustain//As if an audience to entertain//This ironic distance kept her sane”
- “We Could Be Strangers”: “We could be strangers for one night longer//Who any of us are, well, nobody knows//Cause no one’s really better off//No one’s really better off alone”