Photo by Ward & Kweskin.
Father John Misty is preparing for the April release of his fifth album, Chloë and the Next 20th Century, via Sub Pop and Bella Union. Last Wednesday, he released the record's third offering, "Goodbye Mr. Blue" — a follow-up to its January lead single "Funny Girl" and February's "Q4" — and sang it on Colbert that night. Today, he's shared the new song's cinematic yet understated visual treatment, directed by Noel Paul.
Shot just outside Sofia, Bulgaria, the video follows a young, presumably American woman on a trip back to her ancestral home to visit an aging relative. Read a statement on the short film's striking setting, and watch the "Goodbye Mr. Blue" video, below.
Chepan mountain is a rocky hump 1186 metres high about 47 kilometres northwest of Sofia. Its southern face overlooks the largest wetland in Bulgaria, the Dragoman Marsh. A furlong from the edge of the marsh, a circular gully about 50 metres in diameter was gouged out of the foot of the mountain by heavy machinery at some time in September 2016, according to satellite data. No one has explained who made the excavation or why, but its sandy walls and proximity to the marsh have provided an ideal home for the region’s most colourful coraciiform, the European Bee-Eater (Merops apiaster). Contrary to local folklore, the species is typically monogamous only during a nesting season, and will often find a new mate each year after migration.
