Pure Comedy

Josh Tillman opens his most ambitious record with “Pure Comedy,” a five-and-a-half-minute piano-based monologue in which he attempts to explain the whole human project — species-wide, in general, from a neutral observer’s standpoint — and then admits, in the closing line, that he loves it anyway.

The arrangement is lush, orchestral, almost showtune-like. Tillman sings with a specific Laurel Canyon dryness that keeps the song from collapsing under its own ambitions. It’s a song you can put on during the walk to the bus and realize, about two minutes in, that you are being narrated. The ordinary day becomes the scene. The camera pulls back.