Father John Misty’s new music video for “Leaving L.A.” is minimal and black & white, leaving audiences to admire Misty’s musical lament and oddly spherical beard. Accompanied by a string section, Misty’s muted open acoustic chords take a knee to his fairly predictable voice. The song describes a person dissatisfied with L.A. and with the world. He is a misunderstood—“It took me my whole life to learn the G / But the role of Oedipus was a breeze—literary type. He’s sick of “phonies” and new bands. He wants to pack it up and drive to New Orleans.
The video is remarkable for its thirteen minute span and its inside-look into Misty’s recording studio. The song does not follow a typical verse-chorus-verse structure, and the lyrics suggest an author at odds with the world. He sings of abandoned sunsets and choking on watermelon candy with his mom. One has to assume that the song is very personal for Misty, it also seems to be addressed to someone. Leaving so that “I can stop drinking and you can write your script,” Misty ends the song on a cliff, “What we now think is—.”
Attempting a live recording of a thirteen minute song presents obvious problems, but Father John Misty handled it quite well. One wonders whether this was his first take, or if others precede it. Watch it below.
Photography Credit: Owen Ela
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