In it, he compares love to “a pervert on a crowded bus”, “a carcass left out in the heat” and more interestingly, as a “constant twitching” in his eye. Powered by a glam rock bounce, it’s a sleek, ravishing cut, with Tillman packing a generous amount of insight, intelligence and ambiguity into its lean two and a half minutes.
‘Disappointing Diamonds Are The Rarest Of Them All’ is a perfect example. The compositions are much more compact and concise, feeling like a ruthless refinement of the formula. The changes are almost instantly audible but perhaps the one of the most notable is the length of the record which clocks in at 38 minutes over ten tracks, making it his shortest album by some distance. However, at its core is the towering songwriting that’s always elevated his finest work. ‘God’s Favourite Customer’ is a dark, pained masterpiece that presents a scathing assessment of love and Tillman’s own battered psyche.
Those components by themselves would suggest a diminishing return but the result is quite the opposite. For an artist who is known, and loved, for songs that normally contain such fierce, self-aware wit and grandiose constructions, this new material is very much a detour for Tillman, both extremely personal and minimal. Centred around an event last year where his life “blew up”, he labelled the ensuing collection of songs as a “heartbreak album”. In a recent interview with Uncut he discussed the writing of the album and specifically a six-week “misadventure” living in a hotel. Of course, there is some context to this sudden darkening of the skies.
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