Mahashmashana (2024) - father john misty - album review
9.5/10
By O. Jacobs
Mahashmashana (2024)
Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana (2024) isn’t just a masterpiece, it’s one of the greatest albums of all time - the metaphorical genie in the bottle an artist searches for in their career. Picking up where Chloe and The Next 20th Century leaves off with themes of “Burial Grounds”, Misty quite literally builds his sixth record on that foundation.
Ego death, singing from the void, reaching a place thought impossible and perfectly describing it in incredible detail through tone and range, not through “this & that”. Never has crooning over swelling strings sounded so original, inventive, modern. Despite all the rules alternative + popular music has set in place for those seeking success, the tracks on Mahashmashana are as instantly likeable as they are crushingly haunting, sending FJM into a stratosphere of praise, while his altar ego in which we hear his point of view seems disgusted by it.
Father John Misty via Instagram
His sixth record is lock-tight in form, focus, and lyricism. Tillman’s vocals sound like they were recorded in an anechoic chamber sitting alone on mars. Every little bit and piece of instrumentals working together like a rube goldberg machine designed to descend the listener into a final state of acceptance, madness, and loving the freedom of letting go of it all? Perhaps.
This is what a perfect album sounds like - atleast what I believe Josh is going for here. An artist reaching the top of the mountain, then killing himself, to be reborn into something new, and there’s no one around to see it. Mahashmashana feels like something you weren’t meant to hear. A time capsule sent below not intended for reception for another one hundred years or so.
But here we are, alas.
To have never heard what Mahashmashana has to offer? I wonder.
I guess i’ll never know.
