Father John Misty has released his second political track in a month. His new Soundcloud loosie “Holy Hell” isn’t as overt with its politics as the Tim Heidecker cover “Trump’s Private Pilot” but it’s not hard to guess where Josh Tillman is directing some of the titular shock.
The slow piano ballad contends that the “future ain’t looking so bright” and finds Misty slowly giving up on the idea that tomorrow will be better. Given the cynicism he’s shown throughout his career on tracks like “I Love You, Honeybear” and “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment,” it’s hard to believe that Tillman ever had the sunny disposition he lays out at the beginning of the song. But either way, it sounds like the election has left him even lower down, contemplating the idea of a post-truth society.
“The economy just don’t explain this, this unfathomable nameless rift,” he sings. “Who knows if it even exists? It’s just some highly effective rhetoric, used by perverts who get off on it.”
It’s a far cry from jokes about Go-gurt, that’s for sure. Much like he did with the similarly named song “Holy Sh*t”, Misty does find a little light at the very last second, telling all his fellow depressives that “the world won’t end unless we want it to.”
The sudden burst of activity may indicate that a new album is on the way. Misty said he’d already written all the songs for his I Love You, Honeybear follow-up all the way back in July 2015. And he’s clearly spending a good chunk of time in the studio, so we should all be on the lookout.
