In the essay accompanying this record, Joshua Tillman muses on the wonder of romantic love, but also his fear of losing that love. The mixed emotions anchor the sumptuous, warm When You're Smiling and Astride Me – "I can hardly believe I've found you, and I'm terrified by that".

Complex themes about the nature of love's strength and frailty, fear and loathing, run through this tremendous piece of work, from the soaring harmonies on Strange Encounter, the sensual electronica of True Affection, the clattering scuzz on The Ideal Husband, and the existential crisis on Bored in the USA.

Tillman's musical thesis widens to include tales of those who mistreat love, viewing it as an affectation, as on the brilliant The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment.

The song sounds like an alt.soundtrack to The Graduate, its lyrics sharp like a knife's edge: "She says like, literally, music is the air she breathes, and the malaprops make me want to fucking scream, I wonder if she even knows what that word means, well, it's literally not that."

This is Gene Clark meets Woody Allen, a neurotic romantic but a romantic nonetheless.

Every artistic choice has its foil; the exuberant musical atmosphere on Chateau Lobby #4 is leavened with the sound of a ghostly mariachi band, and the story of physical consummation on a wedding day is partnered to an image of death: "Lift up your wedding dress someone was probably murdered in."

Nothing Good Ever Happens at the Goddamn Thirsty Crow is like a country-inflected Kander & Ebb composition, while the melancholy hopefulness of Holy Shit complements the delicate optimism of I Went to the Store One Day.

“Let’s buy a plantation house and let the yard grow wild,’til we don’t need the signs that say ‘keep out,” Tillman sings, finally accepting true intimacy.

And his joy is our joy. A modern classic. fatherjohnmisty.com