(Bella Union)
Josh Tillman ties together the misery, wit and showmanship of his previous albums on a set laced with strings and swagger

There’s always been a grandiosity to Father John Misty; an eye for life’s Big Topics – religion, the self, an existential questioning of what any of it really means anyway – that’s evolved in tandem with the growth of Josh Tillman, the man behind it all. Like a solo trip through the stages of grief at humanity, what started on his early albums with wry, witty eye-rolls has moved through rage and misery (2017’s Pure Comedy; 2018’s God’s Favourite Customer) to something like hope on the light-footed orchestral showmanship of 2022’s Chloë and the Next 20th Century.

Mahashmashana – a reference to the Sanskrit word for “great cremation ground” – feels like a tying together of much that has come before. There’s Hollywood theatricality on the title track’s opening sweep of strings, and widescreen catharsis on Screamland’s apocalyptic climax, while the swaggering She Cleans Up still finds time to let loose. Lyrically, Tillman remains a superlative chronicler of life’s perverseness, whether aimed at himself (Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose) or at the platitudes documented on Mental Health. Yet where before his words teemed with fiery judgment, now it seems like Tillman is simply noticing the embers and watching how they burn.