Chloe and the Next 20th Century
| Father John Misty
Chloe and the Next 20th Century
Chloë and the Next 20th Century is the fifth studio album by American musician Josh Tillman under the stage name Father John Misty, released through Sub Pop and Bella Union on April 8, 2022. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Guardian
Josh Tillman’s stunningly melodic, sepia-tinged new songs are so much more than knowing facsimiles of vintage styles.
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Pitchfork
Singer-songwriter Josh Tillman reaches far, far back to the golden age of Hollywood for a dreamy, lushly orchestrated, wryly comic collection of vignettes that all depend upon the timelessness of a love song.
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Stereogum
Chloë And The Next 20th Century is an oddity, with certain songs that very much speak to each other, and other sets that speak to each other, some in classic FJM dialect and some trying out something new. Altogether, it’s intriguing, to have no idea how he arrived at this sound and where he might go from here. That’s always been the case with Father John Misty, and there’s often something rewarding in the zigs and zags and obfuscation. That remains true here, in all the striking moments Chloë And The Next 20th Century can offer. But the album is still something of a paradox: Father John Misty at maybe his most frustrating while also his prettiest and most polite.
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AV Club
Far more than a vignette of love and war, Chloë is a self-aware character study in how some things never change, told through the gaze of one of the 21st century’s most consistently dour but talented pop songwriters. His coy perspective binds the ills of the jazz age to the endless-information age, in ways that are timely, if not exhausting. Or perhaps it’s just exhausting to watch the flames rise.
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Sputnik Music
With its nostalgic orchestral production, this album is both an ode to the timelessness of love songs and a dark commentary on the horrific cyclicality of history.
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Paste Magazine
Chloë and the Next 20th Century Is Father John Misty Like You've Never Heard Him Before.
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Under the Radar Magazine
Tillman is perfectly fine mining the past. And so he does. He’s a curator, after all, wearing his influences on his sleeve, sometimes a little too much. But while Chloë and the Next 20th Century doesn’t quite measure up to the best of his impressive catalogue, lacking in some of the more unique traits that make those albums so special, even a slightly weaker Father John Misty album is still pretty damn good.
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AllMusic
Fans who fell in love with Tillman's sharp social commentary will find plenty to hone in on, but the lush sounds take some of the bite out of his clever barbs and cynical perspectives on love and connection. Even with the strong, considered design of his previous albums, Father John Misty has never sounded so pleasant.
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Louder Than War
The aural equivalent of a whisky scented kiss, with Chloe and The Next Twentieth Century Father John Misty has turned in an album that will reassure all those who have been waiting for it.
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PopMatters
Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century is filled with deeply imaginative arrangements and sophisticated, textured songwriting.
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Rolling Stone
With delicate orchestral arrangements, a dead Turkish Angora, and an overlying Old Hollywood theme, Chloë and the Next 20th Century is the most un-Misty-like album yet. We’re OK with that.
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The Line of Best Fit
This is a man who once sung about the collapse of western civilisation, covered Taylor Swift in the style of The Velvet Underground and ended his shows with Nine Inch Nails’ "Closer". Love or loathe him, boring was never in his repertoire then.
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The Fire Note
Still not my favorite overall record but it has stood the test of time. Father John Misty is the same. Will Chloë And The Next 20th Century be the pinnacle album in his career? Probably not, but it will be another interesting and worthy stopping point in a career artist’s catalog.
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XS Noize
Elegant, beautiful, sweet, and sad, but most importantly, the record is timeless in every sense; it will hold a place in people's hearts for decades and decades to come while having the ability to make it hard to pin when it was created. Tillman has nothing to prove. He simply shows up and shows he is a master of his craft and gives you something special to embrace. And for me, and my every developing emotional education, more lessons.
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DIY Magazine
On ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’, Father John Misty is transporting himself to a different world; it sounds pretty damn sweet over there.
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Irish Examiner
Joshua Tillman's persona remains an intriguing prospect, even if at times it feels past its sell-by date on this album.
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The Skinny
Josh Tillman’s latest release under his notoriously self-indulgent Father John Misty moniker marks a refreshing change in direction: privileging the music far above the man.
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No Depression
Misty is nothing if not entertaining. This is a good album — just don’t expect to be able to compartmentalize it.
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Medium
Very few, if any, artists have careers without dips and bumps in the road and for me at least, it feels like Chloë and the Next 20th Century is one of those bumps. Maybe these songs will feel more animated in a live setting.
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The Needle Drop
For me, this is somewhat of an unfortunate album for Mr. Tillman.
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Daily Titan
Despite a few lackluster songs, the album highlights his vivid storytelling, while showcasing Father John Misty’s lyrical and vocal talents.
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Live4ever
Resignation is never a good look but on Chloë And The Next 20th Century, Father John Misty sounds as close to making peace with life, as much as the idea seems devilishly uncool. It’s formed from the bones of another era, but these modern antiques represent the author’s salty yarns at their idiosyncratic best.
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Silent Radio
While he remains a brilliant lyrical enigma, the album allows Tillman the chance to indulge his soft-shoe shuffle rather than exercise his swivel hips and for his audience to swoon at exquisite orchestral arrangements.
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Music Matters Media
It’s hard not to read it as an admission of defeat, but the power of Tillman’s music, ultimately, has always come from telling us the unvarnished truths that we always knew deep down but didn’t want to admit to ourselves. And what could be a more fitting portrait of 2022 than that of a cynical, jaded man burying himself in the past to seek reprieve from the present?
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mxdwn Music
Father John Misty’s Chlöe and the Next 20th Century is a listen that takes a bit of getting used to, especially for seasoned Misty listeners. Once settled in, the beauty really opens wide, specifically for those more inclined towards darker undertones.
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Slant Magazine
Father John Misty’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century chases love as its guiding subject but too rarely feels amorous or sensual.
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NME
On album five, Mr Tillman’s ambitious, big band-style visions and bossa nova experiments (yes, really) come to life with thrilling effect.
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Stereoboard
Yet aside from those dark satirical elements within ‘Chloë and the Next 20th Century’, blooming at the forefront is a blushing sentimentality. Tillman has perfected the art of marrying the loving to the ludicrous. Pairing off-kilter one-liners with swooning vocals, he has created an extraordinary listening experience.
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Belwood Music
In many ways Chloe reminds me of Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Lush palatial arrangements, a threadbare poorly developed concept, a lauded lyricist falling short of expectations, and a record that’s enjoyable enough in the background but ultimately not a patch on what it could have been.
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Spectrum Culture
Father John Misty’s conspicuous vanishing act – away from being a big online personality – only highlights his impressive, and remarkably consistent, knack for delivering razor-sharp lyricism atop lush soundscapes.
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Loud and Quiet
Whilst the most important parts of any story are arguably the beginning and end, sometimes the most pivotal moments are those that happen along the way. Between the seductive ‘Kiss Me (I Loved You)’ and the tortured ‘(Everything But) Her Love’, there’s a plethora of sweet and subtle orchestral flurries which act as watermarks for the scene that was set in the album’s opening moments, but nothing quite hits the mark as distinctly at the namesakes themselves.
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Exclaim!
Just when it seems like the album might barely make an impression at all, Chloë ends with "The Next 20th Century," a brooding seven-minute epic with foreboding chord changes and an absolutely thrilling guitar solo. With guitar fuzz and clacking castanets clashing beautifully with a canned drum machine and booming brass, it's a sit-up-and-take-notice moment in an album that's easy to enjoy but even easier to ignore.
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Northern Transmissions
Josh Tillman is only on his fifth Father John Misty album and he’s already navigated so much musical landscape that it seems almost impossible that he could have any further surprises up his long, tailored sleeves. Chloë and the Next 20th Century, which drops April 8th via Sub Pop Records, blows that notion away. With this album we find Tillman at his most emotionally open, lyrically and musically.
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The Miami Student
This revelation recontextualizes the nature of the album’s nostalgia for a past era, serving as the perfect finale to an overall quality album and leaving listeners with plenty to think about in its final words.
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Spin
Father John Misty’s Chloë And The Next 20th Century Shines With Its Old Hollywood Palette.
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