Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century is filled with deeply imaginative arrangements and sophisticated, textured songwriting.
On ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’, Father John Misty is transporting himself to a different world; it sounds pretty damn sweet over there.
Chloë represents a very stark, yet impressive left turn for Tillman, a record that sees him grow not only as a narrative lyricist, but also a master arranger.
Nearly every track comes draped in a lush overlay of strings and piano, though the lyrics ... are pure picaresque, so full of eccentric characters and casual Hollywood lore they feel less like songs than Paul Thomas Anderson movies compressed to six minutes or less.
Sly and sumptuous, it high-kicks, slinks and preens into view as a set of Hollywood songs of delusion, heartache, stardom, nostalgia, and tragicomic obsession, unabashed in its excesses and meta-mischief alike.
As Chloë and the Next 20th Century sees Father John Misty escaping into his own parallel Hollywood reality, it's highly entertaining to slip in alongside him.
He gets the balance right here ... keeping his smart-arse side in check and letting his smoky croon melt into the background, behind strings and woozy brass.
While Chloë and the Next 20th Century doesn’t quite measure up to the best of his impressive catalogue, lacking in some of the more unique traits that make those albums so special, even a slightly weaker Father John Misty album is still pretty damn good.
Chloë and The Next 20th Century is testament to Father John Misty’s art of weaving a tale that is all too familiar, yet seemingly far removed from our present reality – it’s rooted in nostalgia, rumination and longing.
With delicate orchestral arrangements, a dead Turkish Angora, and an overlying Old Hollywood theme, Chloë and the Next 20th Century is the most un-Misty-like album yet. We’re OK with that.
Chloë and the Next 20th Century sees Tillman embrace Hollywood’s Golden Age with more musical cues inspired by the silver screen’s black and white era than you could shake an entire tree at.
Chlöe and the Next 20th Century presents Tillman as a sort of jaded Jacques Brel – he is less obnoxious than ever. But as with many good villains, the less I empathise with Father John Misty, the more I care what he has to say.
It's opulent and immaculately composed but lacks the strong perspective that's usually central to FJM's work. Many of the lyrics display Tillman's signature wit, but his targets here aren't as clearly defined as on past works.
Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century chases love as its guiding subject but too rarely feels amorous or sensual.
For an album which so clearly sells itself as a capital C concept Album, the narrative is indecipherable; each track dropping a handful of new character names, and the final song seems to give up on it completely.
Let's get carried away by the nostalgia of a time that no longer exists in Chloe and the Next 20th Century, a timeless love story in black and white settings. Father John Misty succeeds again in the challenge of the concept and he seems to take pleasure in doing it
[ Hey AOTY, It's a pleasure to see you again after a 2 weeks break, Love]
Beyond his musical content, Father John Misty is also known for his remarkable and fascinating career. Born in Maryland, the artist began his career under ... read more
A very pretty project. FJM isn’t doing anything too impressive, but it sounds quite nice
Embora estaria mentindo se dissesse que 'Chloë and the Next 20th Century' chega ao nível dos melhores álbuns de Father John Misty como 'I Love You, Honeybear' e 'Pure Comedy', seu mais novo álbum é ainda um registro fascinante que consegue figurar entre os melhores discos do ano até agora ao trazer uma extrema qualidade lírica e sonora.
Father John Smith sempre mostrou ser um grande compositor ao trazer uma altíssima qualidade lírica ... read more
I would love to be generous with this record, but all I could think of while listening to it, is how little it has in common with Tillman's previously amazing material like "I Love You, Honeybear" and "Pure Comedy"
For one, the song-writing on here is really general, low on substance and details, which would be fine if it was a good record in a lot of other ways, but with it being this plain and borderline mindless, I don't really want to buy into anything else happening on ... read more
I struggled to understand this album. I knew it was really good especially the last track but I didn’t really understand why. That’s because I approached it like every Father John Misty album before this. This is not like those albums. Father John Misty’s previous 4 albums all had this pretentious sarcastic character and the meaning in it was derived from exploring this character as he moves through life and conflicts regarding things from meaning to art to love. This is not ... read more
Probably I need to listen more intently to the lyrics. Having not done that yet, I got bored. I'll try again, and probably give a better score, when my attention span improves. Some nice little dinglidongly old Hollywood noises in here though.
1 | Chloë 3:28 | 82 |
2 | Goodbye Mr. Blue 5:00 | 83 |
3 | Kiss Me (I Loved You) 3:57 | 74 |
4 | (Everything but) Her Love 4:16 | 75 |
5 | Buddy's Rendezvous 4:59 | 81 |
6 | Q4 4:57 | 82 |
7 | Olvidado (Otro Momento) 4:48 | 75 |
8 | Funny Girl 3:39 | 83 |
9 | Only a Fool 4:02 | 74 |
10 | We Could Be Strangers 4:31 | 74 |
11 | The Next 20th Century 6:56 | 81 |
#4 | / | TIME |
#5 | / | Variety: Chris Willman |
#8 | / | USA Today |
#9 | / | The Telegraph |
#15 | / | Slant Magazine |
#15 | / | The Sunday Times |
#22 | / | WXPN |
#28 | / | RIFF |
#29 | / | MOJO |
#29 | / | NME |