He's one of the best songwriters around right now. The whole "character" angle gets thrown around a lot, but it doesn't keep the songwriting from being genuine, and as far as seeming "pretentious" goes, he's about as showy and self-aware than Max. I'd personally consider all four of his albums essentials of the decade, so yeah, he's worth diving into
Hmmmm maybe I’ll check his albums out finally. I’m somewhat familiar with a few tracks. Just never really clicked.
Listen to Fear Fun and I Love You Honey Bear before anything else. Those are definitely the strongest (and less pretentious) albums.
Fun Times in Babylon is great. So is Mr Tillman off his newest one. He writes straightforward classic pop that is always slightly askew.
At the very, very least, I Love You Honeybear is a classic and one of the best singer-songwriter albums of the 2010s
His new album is the least "showy" for what it's worth, mostly straightforward, devastating ballads outside of the single. But I recommend listening to them in order. They each stand on their own as something uniquely different from the others, and as people here have pointed out, I Love You, Honeybear is an absolutely wild sophmore LP
Im catching on this conversation. I take it someone typed Artist-Album leak was hit with a foray false sites and leaks.
Narcicuss is kind of an odd song, but has this vocoder vocal effect that comes out of nowhere during the bridge--it's even a bit jarring. It's also very ominous, atmospheric, and strangely beautiful. Pretty intriguing for an acoustic bonus track.
It’s a shame they stopped doing b-sides after IARB era. Can’t think of any except Narcissus, and the other one from S/T era.
their B Sides from IARB are fantastic though. Joel From Other Planets Slumming it with Johnny We Will Erase All Life On Earth
There are a couple from Anarchy, "Their Notions" and "Here's To You, Blue Eyes." Also some ridiculously good bonus tracks from IDTII.
Tickle Me Red was the bside to IDOTG Self titled had quite a few Anarchy had a few as well I don't think Hebrews or IDTII have any that were released. EDIT: Totally forgot about the bonus tracks to IDTII.
Say Anything Tracks Went down this rabbit hole last night. Still love those first couple Painful Splits records, too.