Review Summary: Purely comedic stuff
** please note that this was originally a part of a best of list bandied about with some mates of mine, hence explaining some of the list-based diction**
I wouldn’t call 2024 a dud year, per se, but it was a little on the meh side. Obviously, as you are about to see, there was plenty of fantastic music released, but I was getting worried that I wouldn’t find that definitive top album that I’ve been finding easily the last few years. The Killers, Big Thief, and Empty Country topped my last three years with momentous, life-altering albums that I absolutely, unabashedly adore. Deep in Q4 (ha!), I thankfully was delivered that desired, clear-cut winner. Father John Misty and I had a funny start to our relationship, I believe that I alluded to in my review of 2022’s Chloe and the Next 20th Century. I found his persona to be attention-grabbing and brash and my glances at his music only produced shrugs. My dear wife was a huge fan and back in 2016, I decided to jump on board (possibly to gravel to my new girlfriend that I was falling in love with). I’ve been a massive fan ever since. The aforementioned Chloe was good but was the first time I even thought of the word, mildly mind you, “disappointed” in regards to a Josh Tillman record. It has aged decently, but it remains towards the bottom of my FJM rankings. Having said all that, I was extremely excited for a new album because I just adore his music. He is one of the funniest, wittiest, and darkest lyricists I’ve ever listened to and his voice and musical landscapes are always infinitely interesting and alluring to boot. I was beginning to think we were not going to get another album as epic as Pure Comedy and that was okay. Enter: Mahashmashana.
Whoa. I expected the album to be great because that’s all he makes, but I was absolutely blown away almost immediately by the things going on here. This is now his most epic album (length, scope of ideas, grandiosity, etc.) supplanting Pure Comedy for that title. I suppose I prefer that version of him because this now sits next to Pure Comedy as my favorite Tillman record, and that is no small feat. Every song is so fully fleshed out, that I can’t even begin to imagine the time and effort and care put into these wonderful songs. All eight tracks featured here could and will be on a lot of top songs of the year lists and rightfully so. We get grand, orchestral songs, folk songs, electronic rock songs(?!), and sexy hard blues crunchies too. I am overjoyed at how this album turned out and the fact that my lofty expectations can still be exceeded by artists. This is a masterpiece, and I savor every second of it. It absolutely flies by despite its lengthy runtime, and I have on several occasions just started it over. This now can comfortably sit next to those past #1 albums easily, and this applied some much needed cover-up to a somewhat listless year of music.
