The death of the album has been proclaimed many times, and after decades of piracy and point-and-click listening, cohesive bodies of work have indeed lost some of their cultural stature. Yet the long player remains a meaningful art form, the gold standard breathlessly anticipated by fan bases across the genre spectrum. Even the most brainless stans are always screaming at their idols to “drop the album.”

On Friday (Nov. 22), Kendrick Lamar surprise-dropped the new album GNX. It also happened to be release day for Father John Misty’s Mahashmashana, and many are discussing the similarities of the two musicians’ LP schedules over the years.

Mistyheads can exhale. The album we’ve been waiting for is here.

Father John Misty’s highly anticipated new album Mahashmashana arrives on Friday, but the indie polymath doesn’t do things conventionally. Right now, he’s hosting a one-time-only early listening party on YouTube.

Next month, Father John Misty will release his new album Mahashmashana, which is hotly anticipated even though we’ve already heard more than half of its tracks. Some of those songs were released through unconventional means. “She Cleans Up,” which sounds a bit like the Velvet Underground doing boogie-rock, was already up on SoundCloud. But now the Mist has given the song a proper release, thus allowing you to put it on all your little playlists or whatever.

For months, Father John Misty has been teasing something. He’s shared new songs that you could only hear by following links or signing up for text updates. But now, FJM has finally announced that he’ll follow his 2022 LP Chloë And The Next 20th Century with a new one called Mahashmashana. The album is named for Mahāśmaśāna, a Sanskrit word meaning “great cremation ground.” Mahashmashana is set to arrive in a couple of months, and Josh Tillman co-produced it with Drew Erickson. Regular collaborator Jonathan Wilson serves as executive producer. There are eight songs on the LP, and half of them are already out in the world in one form or another.

Josh Tillman has said he’ll be releasing a new Father John Misty album before the year is over. Assuming that’s true, he’s going about the rollout in a very Tillman fashion: Being cryptic and secretive and sneaky about it. I don’t envy the hardcore Mistyheads for this reason. But a couple of weeks ago, Tillman uploaded an eight-second clip of a new song to YouTube, titled only “9/17.” Today, two days before Sept. 17, he sent out a private link for the song to fans via text message.

Earlier this year, Father John Misty released a greatest hits album titled Father John Misty Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams And My Dreams Said To Crawl. Last week, Josh Tillman debuted a new song called “She Cleans Up” in University Park, Pennsylvania.

We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.

Cryptic king Father John Misty is up to something. Last month, the indie musician teased a song possibly titled “Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose” and posted a minute-long clip of another track on YouTube, and today he texted a new single, “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All,” to fans who signed up for updates about his music.

On Monday, Father John Misty shared a 35-second clip of a new song that may or may not be titled “Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose.” Now, the cryptic musician is teasing another track with a minute-long taste.

Father John Misty appears to have some new music on the way. The guy also known as Josh Tillman teased as much on social media today, sharing a 35-second clip to his Instagram and TikTok of a song Redditors have concluded is titled “Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose.”

Father John Misty occasionally releases official live albums, and a new one out today includes a previously unreleased song. Josh Tillman recorded Live At The Sunset Cultural Center just 10 days ago at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA. The solo gig’s 18-song setlist featured “Corpse Dance,” a seven-minute epic that will presumably will appear in a studio iteration on some upcoming FJM LP. Until then, you can hear its live debut below.

Last month, Org Music announced Moping In Style: A Tribute To Adam Green, a compilation album full of indie greats paying homage to the Moldy Peaches member. We previewed the collection with “That Fucking Feeling” and “Her Father And Her” by Ben Kweller and now the full LP is out.

Last year, the Moldy Peaches reunited for the first time in 11 years for the premiere of the documentary Meet Me In The Bathroom. The indie rock nostalgia is still alive and present; Adam Green, one half of that cult-followed duo, is being commemorated with a new compilation called Moping In Style: A Tribute To Adam Green.

From his 2012 debut as Father John Misty to the height of his Pure Comedy era in 2017, Josh Tillman was a virtuoso interview subject — the Kobe Bryant of pullquotes, prolific with quips, never afraid to aim and shoot. He was a lot of fun to blog about back then. Then, ahead of 2018’s stellar God’s Favorite Customer, he went silent, letting the music speak for itself. But he gave a couple quick interviews last year, and now he’s spoken at length for the first time in a long time.

Tonight at the Barbican Centre in London, Father John Misty is teaming up with Jules Buckley and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on a one-time-only performance. Together, they’re doing orchestral renditions of Scott Walker songs. Highlights from the show will air this coming Thursday, May 25 at 4PM ET on BBC Radio 6 Music, but for now we can get a sneak preview via videos making their way online. Check out footage below.

Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd? If you follow the music press and/or Lana Del Rey’s career (as if a person could possibly keep up with the former without inadvertently absorbing the latter), you did know that. LDR has been rolling out her latest opus since December, during which time she’s revealed title track “Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd,” “A&W,” and “The Grants.” Each song has been epic in its own way, suggesting we may be on the precipice of the best Del Rey record since Norman Fucking Rockwell! back in the pre-pandemic days of 2019. Now we get to test that hypothesis.

At the very beginning of 2022, Wilco staged their first edition of Sky Blue Sky, their Cancun destination festival, since the beginning of the pandemic. There were complications. Amidst a new wave of COVID variants, many fans were mad that Wilco didn’t offer a refund option, and Wilco’s rep had to make a statement that the band wasn’t in any position to offer refunds. Nevertheless, the festival still happened, and Wilco performed with guests like Kurt Vile, Soccer Mommy, and Mavis Staples. Later this year, they’ll try it again.

South Carolina’s High Water Festival 2023 is set to return for its fifth year at North Charleston’s Riverfront Park from April 15-16. Headliners this year include Beck, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and Wilco.

Stevie Wonder’s 1972 song “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” is a straight-up indestructible masterpiece of pop music, a standout work from the peak period of one of the all-time greats. You know what’s crazy? Stevie Wonder’s entire 1972 album Talking Book is fully bulletproof, but “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” might be the best song on the record. Incredibly, Stevie Wonder never released that song as a single. I guess that’s just what happens when a song ends up on the same album as “Superstition” and “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.” But “I Believe” remains an eternal classic, a perfect recording. You have to have a lot of guts to cover a song like that one. Father John Misty has a lot of guts.

You know what’s fun? Hearing Nailed It! host Nicole Byer say the name “Father John Misty.” She really makes a meal of those three words. She sounds like she’s introducing a new car on The Price Is Right, or like she’s Michael Buffer announcing a title fight. If I was Father John Misty — and let’s be clear, I’m not — then I would make that my outgoing voicemail message.

Goose performed at Radio City Music Hall this weekend, fresh off the release of the jam band’s new album DRIPFIELD. Last night, they were joined by Father John Misty for a couple of songs. Also along for the ride was Phish’s Trey Anastasio, who came out for the second half of the band’s set.

In April, Josh Tillman released his latest Father John Misty album, Chloë And The Next 20th Century. (We named it one of the best albums of the year so far.) While he released most of the album’s best tracks as singles, a few remained to be discovered as people dug in. One of those was “Buddy’s Rendezvous,” which aside from “The Next 20th Century” may be the primary Chloë contender for a FJM instant classic.

Even as the music industry attempts, sometimes unsuccessfully, to get back to normal, our collective COVID-era time warp hasn’t really resolved itself here in June 2022. In that sense, it feels especially weird and surprising to be running down the best albums of 2022’s first half right now. (Are we sure it’s not still 2021? Are we sure 2020 even happened?) Even more disorienting, any album scheduled to be released by June 30 was eligible for this list, so some of these records are from the future.

Father John Misty continued his Chloë And The Next 20th Century promo tour last night with a visit to Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. As on Colbert two months ago, Josh Tillman was backed by a large orchestral band capable of bringing the new album’s refined retro arrangements to life. This time the choice of material was “Kiss Me (I Loved You),” and rarely has a melodica solo seemed so sad.

Josh Tillman was having a surreal moment. A couple weeks ago, he was performing the first of two Thursday night sets celebrating the release of his fifth Father John Misty album, Chloë And The Next 20th Century. Looking out the window of the Rainbow Room — that old Rockefeller Center club towering over Manhattan, now implausibly the site of New York’s Rough Trade shows — he pointed to the glittering lights of the city and asked “…Chrysler Building or Empire State?” He explained he’d gone someplace else during that last song, that he took in his surroundings and a wormhole opened up and the 2012 iteration of Josh Tillman saw him here — hair shorn into a buzz cut, suited up, fronting a band playing old-time-y Hollywood soundtrack balladry about the “ever-present past” while he quipped about shrimp cocktails in between songs — and was aghast. His deadpan kicker: “Then he sent the Terminator after me.”

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week (the eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight). This week’s countdown is below, and you can listen to a playlist of all our 5 Best Songs on Spotify.

This New Music Friday is a big one. Among the many, many noteworthy new releases are albums from the beloved yet polarizing trio of Father John Misty, Wet Leg, and Jack White. After publishing our reviews of all three, Ryan Leas and I hopped on Callin to further expound on them in this week’s Callin Me Maybe. We also took some FJM-centric listener calls, including a report from his London release show and a question about how his new Chloë And The Next 20th Century compares to Lorde’s forgettable Solar Power. Listen to the episode here.

Father John Misty is releasing his first new album in four years — Chloë And The Next 20th Century — this Friday. To celebrate, FJM will perform live at the Barbican in London with the Britten Sinfonia, and fans will be able to watch via livestream on YouTube. It kicks off at 3PM EST — you can watch his Chloë release show live below.

God’s Favorite Customer felt like the end of the story Josh Tillman had been telling as Father John Misty. He’d undergone a hallucinogenic rebirth and introduced listeners to his new persona on 2012’s Fear Fun; he’d shown us that acerbic skeptic flailing through romantic convulsions and succumbing to domestic bliss on 2015’s I Love You, Honeybear; he’d presented the sprawling decline of human civilization on 2017’s Pure Comedy; and, finally, he’d faced down the personal reckonings of 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer. In six years, Josh Tillman released four of the most celebrated and divisive albums in the loosely defined “indie sphere.” Along the way, he also became a love-him-or-hate-him character — nimbly dancing around interviews and press narratives until he’d taken it about as far as it could go and then, in yet another about-face in a career full of them, going totally silent and letting the music of his fourth album speak for itself. It made the end destinations of God’s Favorite Customer, a life imploding and a man reassembling the pieces, all the more resounding.

In four short days, we get another nice, long look at whatever’s going on inside Josh Tillman’s brain. That’s when Chloë And The Next 20th Century, the long-awaited new Father John Misty album, finds its way into the world. Thus far, the Mist has already shared a generous handful of songs: “Funny Girl,” “Q4,” “Goodbye Mr. Blue.” Today, Tillman has shared a seven-minute colossus that serves as one of the two title tracks from the new LP.

Every week the Stereogum staff chooses the five best new songs of the week (the eligibility period begins and ends Thursdays right before midnight). This week’s countdown is below, and you can listen to a playlist of all our 5 Best Songs on Spotify.

Yesterday Father John Misty released “Goodbye Mr. Blue,” a lush and death-haunted retro country ballad from his forthcoming album Chloë And The Next 20th Century. And last night, he performed it on The Late Show, roaming the Ed Sullivan Theatre stage in jeans and a white button-down, head shorn to a buzzcut. Although backed by a sprawling band that included pedal steel and a string section, the performance was all simmer — the sound of slowly drifting through sadness with no hope for reprieve. When it was over, Stephen Colbert told Josh Tillman, “Thank you, John.” Watch below.

In one month, Father John Misty will come back with Chloë And The Next 20th Century, the long-awaited follow-up to 2018’s God’s Favorite Customer. The Mist has already shared two singles from the new LP, “Funny Girl” and “Q4.” Now he’s dropped a third early track on us.

Father John Misty is releasing his new album Chloë And The Next 20th Century in April. He’s already shared the early singles “Funny Girl” and “Q4.” And last night, he played them live for the first time, backed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Watch some fan-shot clips from the performance below.

For obvious reasons, the volunteer-run Des Moines festival known as 80/35 Fest hasn’t happened since 2019. This year, 80/35 is coming back with a lineup that leans heavily on the indie rock side of things. The festival is set to return to Des Moines’ Western Gateway Park in July, and it’s got Father John Misty and Charli XCX as headliners.

At the beginning of the year, Josh Tillman reemerged with the long-awaited official announcement of his fifth Father John Misty album, Chloë And The Next 20th Century. At the time, he also shared a lead single called “Funny Girl,” which found FJM moving in a sort of old-time-y orchestral pop direction. Today, he’s back with another one.

When Father John Misty officially announced his new album Chloë And The Next 20th Century earlier this month, he also detailed a deluxe box set version of the album that will feature bonus 7″s of other people singing some of the new songs. One of those is David Lynch’s spin on “Kiss Me (I Loved You),” and the other is Lana Del Rey offering her take on “Buddy’s Rendezvous.”