Father John Misty, the pseudonym solo project of the Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman, covered “Heart Shaped Box” from Nirvana’s 1993 classic album In Utero. Check out the track below.
The other day, Father John Misty released his second solo LP, called I Love You, Honeybear. It is a great follow up to his first solo album under the name and guise of Father John Misty, called Fear Fun, which was released to great acclaim in 2012, and included such hits as “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” and “Funtimes In Babylon”. The album has been described by Tillman as a concept album about an imaginary psyche that can sometimes wander into, both venerable and honest. It deals with Tillman’s admission of having engaged in all sorts of regrettable behaviors. But it also, obviously, deals with love and the pain that comes with the circumstances under which love happens and must live.
Perhaps this mindset is what informs Tillman’s excellent cover of “Heart Shaped Box” so well. The recording is extremely spare, with reverb on the vocals and naught but an acoustic guitar for accompaniment. The track merits listening and for the most part surpasses descriptions that would seek to quantify the feeling of pain that Tillman channels from Cobain here. It is simply stunning and should be listened to with nothing else going on, while you are sitting alone with nothing else to focus on. It is raw and excellent.
It was recorded at the Sirius XMU studios.
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