Father John Misty,”I Love You, Honeybear” aka Josh Tillman, has released the video for “I Love You, Honeybear” from this year’s album of the same name. Tillman co-wrote the video with his wife, Emma, and co-directed the video with Grant James, who also worked on two videos from Father John Misty’s 2012 LP, Fear Fun (“This Is Sally Hatchet”, “Funtimes in Babylon”). The video stars Brett Gelman (The Other Guys) and Susan Traylor (Greenberg). Tillman describes it as “a portrayal of an average night in the lives of two EMTs.”
He may sound like he wandered away from an L.A. ashram, but don’t be fooled by the beatific-hippie vibes. There’s a killer songwriter’s instinct beneath all those dreamy Laurel Canyon melodies the man can write a cutting lyric like nobody’s business).
Father John Misty’s “City of Music” session, featuring a performance of the song “I Love You, Honeybear”.
Directed/shot/edited/audio by Trent Waterman
On paper, “I Love You, Honeybear” is a nightmare: Suave yet cripplingly self-aware bearded bohemian millennial falls madly in love, grapples at length with becoming a different kind of walking cliché, and tops it off with an on-the-nose takedown of the American Dream. But what some listeners might register as smug self-indulgence strikes me as one of 2015’s realest and rawest dissertations. Josh Tillman’s misanthropy is far-reaching; he’s an equal-opportunity roaster, sparing no target including himself. His lyrical eviscerations are on-point and often laugh-out-loud funny, and they’re couched in throwback lounge-lizard arrangements far too pretty to be retro kitsch. Plus he sweetens the deal with some truly romantic declarations of love. This album is every bit as smart and beautiful as Tillman believes it is
The Fat Angel Sings 