Father John Misty is back with another one-off single. “The X-panded Universe” is either Josh Tillman’s second or third new song of 2026, following “The Payoff” and “The Old Law.” (“The Old Law” had been floating around since 2024 under a different title, “God’s Trash.”) Maybe it’s just me, but it kind of sounds like he’s singing about the latter-day Marvel Cinematic Universe: “In the crossover event/God is only as good as the villains he invents…There must be timelines like this/Where heroes don’t exist.” Listen and decide for yourself below.

Tillman shared his last Father John Misty LP, Mahashmashana, in late 2024. He followed it up with a collection of demos to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his 2015 opus I Love You, Honeybear. In December, Tillman will make a quick jaunt across the West Coast, his first tour without a full band in over a decade. Damien Jurado will support the whole run. Scroll down to see all of Father John Misty’s upcoming shows.

Read about Father John Misty’s “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All” at No. 56 in The 100 Best Songs of 2024.

Father John Misty:
10-06 Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre
12-09 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theatre ^
12-10 Ft. Collins, CO - Washington’s ^
12-12 Santa Fe, NM - The Lensic Center for the Arts ^
12-13 Tucson, AZ - La Rosa ^
12-15 Napa, CA - Uptown Theater ^
12-16 Grass Valley, CA - Center for the Arts ^
12-18 Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA - Sunset Cultural Center ^
12-19 Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA - Sunset Cultural Center ^