My verdict: I like “Now and Then”, but don’t love it. The melody’s good, I like the string section, and overall, I think it is far better than “Free as a Bird” (which to date, I still can’t understand why they gave precedence to that one). At the same time, though, I don’t think it’s as good as “Real Love”, which sounds so much more natural; “Real Love” feels like it could have been on RUBBER SOUL or REVOLVER. It sounds like the Beatles. “Now and Then” sounds like the Beatles trying to sound like the Beatles; it actually reminds me a lot of George’s “When We Was Fab”, which I also like, but no matter how hard they try, they just don’t feel like the real thing.