I first heard J. Tillman's music a couple of years ago when he released 'Long May You Run, J. Tillman' on Keep Recordings - a collection of lo-fi, well lived-in recordings that were simply staggering to me. I'd only been doing the record label thing for a little over a year at the time, but I distinctly remember coming out of a long thousand-yard-stare with a feeling of breathless exhaustion at the emotional heft of the music. I also remember immediately afterwards thinking “That's exactly the music I want to release. This is perfect.” So, as you might imagine, it was a both a huge surprise and a huge honor when Josh approached me about working with him on this collection of songs.
And what a collection it is - on Cancer and Delirium Tillman strikes the perfect balance between the intimacy of his earlier releases that I fell in love with with the masterful, nuanced melodic sense of his excellent 2006 Fargo release, Minor Works. The songs are imbued with the same strikingly disconsolate singing and devastatingly poignant prose that J. Tillman is known for and accented with gorgeous, spare arrangements.
I've spent the last several dark winter months curled up in a heat-less warehouse apartment and this album has been the perfect accompaniment. The short days have given me plenty of time to crawl deep inside every heartbreaking passage and evocative instrumental flourish and it's thrilling for me to be able to share all this beauty with you.
1. Visions of a Troubled Mind
2. Milk White Air
3. Evans and Falls (mp3)
4. A Fine Suit
5. Ribbons of Glass (mp3)
6. Under the Sun
7. If I Get to the Borderline
8. When I Light Your Darkened Door (mp3)
9. How Much Mystery
Stripped down to the core, these songs don't swagger, or instantaneously vie for your attention, but slowly--magically, almost--float into your head; before you know it, it's hard to imagine that any other song fit as perfectly. It's a gift--a songwriter's ability to create something (lyrically and musically) that speaks volumes without being over the top/in your face--universal and personal at the same time, and Tillman has it. With his new album, out on Yer Bird Records, J. Tillman has created some of the most beautiful/engaging songs you're likely to hear in 2007. - SCTAS
Gone are the overly striking comparisons to Neil Young and through his own abilities as a musician, took what was to be learned from Jason Molina, drunken nights with Ryan Adams (I'm imagining now), and has even surpassed, which I thought could not be done, Long May You Run J. Tillman, and has created the emensly rich and dark masterpiece that is Cancer and Delirium. - The Perm and the Skullet
"Cancer and Delirium isn't exactly the most catchy or sexy album title, but with material this stark, beautiful, and compelling, it doesn't matter... If this is your first time coming into contact with his sparse, breathy, and breathtaking music, all the better. Like a good wine, Tillman merely gets better with time."
- Barbara Mitchell, The Stranger
"Tillman brings together lyrics that use names and phrases which only make sense in the world he has created on Cancer And Delirium, and possibly in his own head, for example: "Untethered, back-lit by sleight of hand? on "Visions Of A Troubled Mind", "Said the cat-scratch knees/To the pulled-back hair" on "Milk White Air", "My spring-bird does? In the gaze of Iron-side" on "Ribbons Of Glass". At other times he creates startlingly beautiful imagery using physical objects that mingle with the internal world of perception and emotion, "Something black/Something pale/Wrapped in stone/In the milk white air" from "Milk White Air" has something alchemical, magical, about it, again omitting overt explanation, what he leaves out intensifying what he leaves in."
- Simon Gurney, The Line of Best Fit
"...'Visions of a Troubled Mind' sums up everything fantastic about his work. He doesn’t rely on anything, except his ear and his smoky voice. With instrumentation so soft you have to strain to hear, you get swept up in the wave of emotion his words deliver. As the song ends, you are left exhausted, but somehow craving more...
I’d like to describe this record, talking about every subtle squeak on the fret board, every nuance of his voice, but these songs are truly better heard than described."
- Herohill
