In 1968 appeared The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. The folk-rock group had lent itself to 12 incarnations, which were meant to be caricatural, but which were not so much: it was rather a permission to deploy in all possible facets. Great art! It’s a bit much of Father John Misty’s project: a 360-degree fresco, an improbable turn of the century that goes far beyond the music, however vast in spirit, of the fifteen albums launched under various names in 20 years by Joshua Tillman. Judge for yourself: we wander from the fox-trot of the 1930s to quasi-Harry Nilsson (Goodbye Mr. Blue irresistibly evokes Everybody’s Talkin’), we are almost at John Barry in the intro of Q4then worked Getz-Gilberto for the timeOlvidado (Other Momento), then in western swing country à la Willie Nelson, to end, with We Could Be Strangers, in the middle of a retrofuturist lounge. Among other confusing detours. On purpose. Yes, we are going in circles. Ideal in 33 laps.
To see in video