I find Father John Misty's shtick amusing as often as I find it annoying and his lyrics clever as often as I find them cloying. For me, it all boils down to the impression Josh Tillman gives off of thinking he's the smartest person in the room, even when he's poking fun at himself, which makes me roll my eyes more with every listen. Still, on a purely musical level, it's hard to deny the instant appeal of I Love You, Honeybear, which features plenty of immaculately-crafted songwriting and benefits greatly from Tillman's rich vocal tone and personable delivery, all of which goes a long way to temper the album's less easily palatable aspects.

Tillman's cynical wit works best, in my opinion, when he's using it to skewer either himself or broader issues of politics and American culture (where things get dicey is in those moments when his self-mockery veers dangerously close to becoming an excuse to target specific people just because he can). This is most clearly on display in "The Ideal Husband" and "Bored in the USA." The former is viciously self-critical, featuring Tillman wailing his way through a laundry list of fatal character flaws ("Every woman that I've slept with/Every friendship I've neglected/Didn't call when Grandma died/I spend my money getting drunk and high") before exclaiming sarcastically, "Let's put a baby in the oven/Wouldn't I make the ideal husband?" The latter simply shouldn't work at all, from its canned audience laughter to its ridiculously melodramatic one-liners ("Save me, white Jesus!"), but Tillman's spot-on delivery sells every minute of it.

Such unabashed grandiosity carries over into the album's more sincere moments as well. The title track lays the romanticism on thick; full to the brim with swooning strings and lyrics that unapologetically shout their infatuation from rooftops, it's the musical equivalent of a public proposal but so damn earnest that it's hard not to say "yes." "When You're Smiling and Astride Me" is similarly unsubtle in its attempt at blue-eyed soul, complete with slow-burning organ, slide guitar, and gospel choir, yet all the more endearing for so proudly wearing its heart on its sleeve. And "Holy Shit," purportedly written on Tillman's wedding night, ups the intensity further by comparing the institution of marriage to everything from "ancient holy wars, dead religions, holocausts" to "age-old gender roles, infotainment, capital" before making the optimistic declaration of his own relationship, "Maybe love is just an economy based on resource scarcity/What I fail to see is what that's got to do with you and me."

Ultimately, despite the music being so instantly enjoyable, it's difficult to clearly define where Father John Misty as a character ends and Josh Tillman as a person begins, which vaguely unsettles me as a listener - it's impossible to know how much of what he says to take seriously. Others may not have an issue with this. At any rate, I Love You, Honeybear is always intriguing and certainly worthy of a place on this list.