My thoughts on the concept of Pure Comedy and why you should be listening to it
This is
not a review, but rather a recommendation.
Josh Tillman's third album as Father John Misty came out in April 7 and the timing of the realease couldn't have been more precise, one day after Trump's missile strike in Syria. What strange and troubling times we are living in! Pure Comedy is the dose of real life lessons and anguish we all have needed. It's political and also very, very human. Through the lyrics, FJM examines his personal demons as he sings in "Smoochie", though he doesn't talk only about his doubts and torments, but humanity - the Dasein and beyond - putting himself in the debate between giant philosophers about the essence.
When I first heard the album, I couldn't stop crying. To wake up listening to this album after watching the news was like being aware of my sins, of everybody's sins, but also making peace with myself. I'm so moved that I have to write about it.
There's no bad song and each one fits perfectly on the album, it's like the album has a consistent harmony that grows into your whole soul, playing with the purpose of the chords. It's so unique. I feel a similar experience when I watch a concert and the orchestra touches me in a way it's hard to describe, growing in my entire being. It's a magical and singular experience that feels like the return of Walter Benjamin's aura. In fact, a big difference in this album comparing to the previous ones is that Josh uses an orchestra.
I'm curious and excited to know how he's gonna perform those songs for the Pure Comedy tour. Is he bringing an entire orchestra? Is he changing the band or just adding a pianist? I guess we'll have to wait until his performance at Coachella next weekend.
Back to the album, it has 13 songs and the lyrics are much more mature, though still sarcastic and provocative as the man himself, reminding me of a young Bob Dylan feat Pink Floyd and Elton John. There's so much of Elton in this album: the piano and the FJM way of singing, as you can notice in Things It Would Be Helpful To Know Before Revolution.
Pure Comedy, like Magic Mountain is a journey through the decadence of humanity, examining how we got here, what it means to be human, what kind of future we are in for, but aso what we can do to change it all. Better than offering ready answers and guarantees, it offers a critical analyze. Through the album, Josh critizes how the promises of modernity seem like the same promises, but clothed in new garments, bringing the depreciative characteristic of European nihilism.
With the death of God, the man becomes the center of things and forgets the one who would be the foundation, the being. In this context, man as soil - the foundation of all things in the history of metaphysics - forgets the being.
"Man's attempt to become the unconditional foundation and center of everything leaves the own man without foundation and without center. That which could and should provide the foundation of all existence Human being, Being as such, fell into oblivion, and instead of thinking In the Being, the nihilistic-humanist metaphysics only thinks of the world as the image and ends of man." (GILES, 1975, p. 261).
Although some might say Josh is flirting with nihilism in Pure Comedy, which I don't disagree, as I pointed out before, my interpretation is less chaotic, there are some elements of hope, announcing new possibilits.That's why I think Father John Misty metaphysic might be closer to Heidegger than Nietzsche, even if by accident. It's like Josh is reaveling all the negativity of the world, exposing how we forgot about the essence of the being, but also telling us it shouldn't be this way and we can change our perspectives. God is not dead or at least there's a chance for His return.
In Heidegger, Dasein is in the world and totally enveloped by it. Without the world one can not think of it. Dasein shares with others the space that surrounds it. In his occupation he finds himself and others. Without the other there is no point in existing, which is similar to what FJM tells us in the song Pure Comedy. "I hate to say it but each other is all we got". Being launched into the world enables Dasein to immerse itself in the adventure of sharing this world with others. Dasein is with the others. The others do not mean all the rest of the others besides me, of which the self would isolate itself. The others, on the contrary, are those from whom, for the most part, no one really differentiates between which one is also.
Dasein is in this world, coexists with others, relates to the other Dasein, but also walks to death. He is not a ready being (total), finished, defined. Dasein is a being-to-death:
Conquest of an existential concept of death. (Being
and Time, p.17)
In Ballad of the Dying Man, Josh sings "Eventually the dying man takes his final breath
But first checks his news feed to see what he's 'bout
to miss
And it occurs to him a little late in the game
We leave as clueless as we came".
According to Dasein's mode, death is only in an existential being. The true path to follow towards being is to uncover the authentic existence of Dasein. This task is centered on anguish. Faced with the possibility of death, Dasein lives the anguish. Being determined by the essence as being, it moves towards death. It begins to die from the day it is born. Death is the most appropriate possibility, since it concerns the essence of existence, that is, power-being. No one can take the death of the other.
With Pure Comedy and in Dasein, man's existence can only be considered if also is considered to be in a world. Without manhood there can be no man. In the world, we become aware of our existence, giving the possibility to make life more comfortable, launching ourselves in meetings with others, making happen the coexistence. Men need the presence of another to live. The coexistence with the other has this very important role in life because it is through it that the human being becomes human. And that's when FJM is being less pessimist as some might think.
The lessons I take from this album is that we are all responsible for what's going on in the world somehow and although it might seems bad and the end, we still have chances to make it better because we are alive and being alive is a miracle itself.
"Oh, I read somewhere
That in twenty years
More or less
This human experiment will reach its violent end
But I look at you
As our second drinks arrive
The piano player's playing "This Must Be the Place"
Great read!
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