Now And Then
By The Beatles
This is being written before seeing the Peter Jackson-directed video to what is being pitched as “the last Beatles song”. No doubt the reworked archive footage will turn this piano ballad into quite the AI-assisted trip down memory lane but the song itself doesn’t need the visual nostalgia to sound poignant all by itself. It’s certainly less of a wonky ghost train ride than its posthumous predecessors, Free as a Bird and Real Love, that were reassembled from 1970s solo Lennon demo recordings for the 1995 Anthology project. Lennon’s original Now And Then dates from the same drawer of odds and ends. His vocal has been put through the AI sonic sorting hat that Jackson and his technical wizards developed for the Get Back series, then had some George Harrison guitar from the 1995 sessions added, along with drums by Ringo Starr, and bass and subdued vocals by Paul McCartney. You might come away wishing there was a bit more Lennon-McCartney melodic magic and the fulsome string arrangement by Giles Martin – son of the band’s original producer George – is there to press the “uplift” button rather than give Eleanor Rigby a run for her money. But it walks a fine line between sounding like the Beatles of yore and what they might sound like had all been present and correct in 2023. All in all, a minor-key miracle. – Russell Baillie
impossible (Live Session)
by Wasia Project
Siblings William Gao and Olivia Hardy make up the keys and vocals respectively of UK-based Wasia Project. But for the selection of songs that they recorded live from their nan’s house in Liverpool, they had Luca Wade and Tom Pacitti join in – bringing the enveloping, jazzy sound to life exclusively before the eyes of their YouTube audience. impossible, originally released last year on Spotify, is a heavily layered track of tension and release that is performed effortlessly and impressively by the group. It’s catchy without falling into too many overdone pop tropes and it demands a live rendition, just to see if they can master its complexity in real time. And that they can. – Alana Rae
Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version; From The Vault)
by Taylor Swift
While it’s a re-record off 1989, often hailed as one of the poppiest of pop albums, the ditching of a classic pop structure gives Swift’s new song Now That We Don’t Talk an interesting edge. It’s funny too, with Swift singing how relieved she is that she no longer has to pretend she likes “acid rock” for this unnamed (but extremely speculated about) ex. The lyricism of her 1989 vault tracks have an intricacy to them like that of her 2019 album Lover. Given how praised she was for the simplicity and timelessness of her original 1989 record, this is a bold move. But why doubt the master of said bold strokes when they seem to work out for her time and time again. – Alana Rae
Cool
by No Cigar
Sounding not that far from Summer Thieves’ croaky vocal and laid-back grooves, this final single from No Cigar’s forthcoming album The Great Escape was conceived in Mangawhai and it sounds like it: spacey surf guitars, a summer mood and maybe an afternoon swim if you can be bothered getting out of the hammock. A little tripped-out too. Ah yes. Summer, huh? – Graham Reid
Pinnacle
By Admiral Drowsy
First single from next year’s Industrial Consistency album by Lyttelton’s Luke Redfern Scott (AKA Admiral Drowsy) has echoes of solo Syd Barrett, strange alt.folk and dreamy if slightly disturbing pop. His previous, independently released album The Gutter Boy Spectates (2012) was a real slow grower but this mesmerising single suggests maybe a pop sensibility coming through. Let’s hope not too much of it though. – Graham Reid
Mary Lattimore
By Mary Lattimore
In which we welcome a new genre, avant-harp. Classically trained harpist Lattimore, coming here for the Others Way Festival in Auckland on December 1, has worked with Kurt Vile, Thurston (Sonic Youth) Moore and others in the alt-cum-indie world. Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Meg Baird (Espers) and Cure co-founder Lol Tolhurst appear on her album Goodbye, Hotel Arkada from which this single and scene-setting opening track is lifted. Weightless, elevating, atmospheric dreamscape music. – Graham Reid
Offering
From Passages by Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass
US composer Philip Glass has long acknowledged his debt to Indian music but it’s never been more explicit than in this 1990 collaboration with legendary sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. Have a great Diwali! – Richard Betts
