Among the many beautiful things Father John Misty has created lies I Went To The Store One Day, the closing song from his most recent album, I Love You, Honeybear.
The opening instrumental is light and intimate, with a little bit of bravado. Maybe you think of an old song recounting the love between a circus clown and a tightrope walker, which a busking trio would perform to you in Venice. Then comes Joshua Tillman's voice, and then his words, "We met. . . In a parking lot." It is unexpected, and you're not sure whether to laugh or just keep listening to try to untangle the narrative, but it also doesn't really matter. Tillman goes on to list his purchases from the fateful trip to the store, "coffee and cigarettes / Fire wood and bad wine long since gone". The effects on him, however, are not so transient - the woman he met will become his wife. This detail, along with any other glimpse of who she might be, is not mentioned in the song. Rather, he focuses on the effect of their love on himself "I've become jealous, rail-thin, prone to paranoia when I'm stoned", and their future "let's buy a plantation house and let the year grow til we don't need the signs that say 'keep out'". As it goes on, this lovely piece swings between tender ballad and ironic comedy, "insert here a sentiment re our golden years", but the simple surprise and vulnerability in the lines "For love to find. . . Us of all people / I never thought it'd be so simple" place it firmly in the territory of Love Song, and one of my favourites of those.
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