The Beatles have just released their last single, Now and Then.

It appears as a free VEVO music video as well as these for-purchase products: various versions of vinyl and cassette.

“Now and Then” was a demo John Lennon recorded in The Dakota in the late 1970’s. The main reason it’s The Beatles’ last single is because until now it was too hard to separate John’s vocals from the piano notes. Technology to the rescue:

Want to know more? Check out this Parlogram documentary.

My take: I like this video most when it starts incorporating images from “Then” with footage from “Now” viz. 1:47, 1:55, etc. I would have liked to have seen much more of this technique used. This is truly the visualization of Now and Then — show us more!

Unfortunately, I’m not overly enamoured with the song itself; I find it middling and melancholic. I also don’t like:

• The graphics and the cover image — boring!
• The first few shots of the video are over-sharpened and plop us in the “uncanny valley” — not a good start.
• The lip sync is poor — if you’re going to use AI, why not go all the way and use AI to reshape the mouths for perfect sync?
• I think they missed a great opportunity to have Paul and Ringo sing verses in their own voices. Again, why not go all in and use AI to voice clone George and have him sing a verse too?

As to “last singles” — I think they should give this treatment the last song the Beatles actually recorded together: The End. Although, after 60 years, perhaps it’s just time to move on.