The John Lister Project exemplified the importance of the human soul in sound with the latest single, Highwayman. At the centre of the project is composer, musician and producer John Lister, whose body of work is built on original songs played note by note on real instruments, with no AI shortcuts, no borrowed performance samples, and no drum-loop sterility flattening the life out of the music. That commitment matters, because Highwayman lives and breathes through raw resolve. Reverent to the roots of rock, Lister knows exactly how to tap into your psyche through your rhythmic pulses while immersing you in lyrical narratives which sprawl before you as vivid vignettes.
There’s an almost arcane air to Highwayman, delivering the same hazy sublimity as The Zombies through the shimmering organ tones, while intersecting those woozy qualities with gasoline-soaked, overdriven rock ’n’ roll guitars. That tension gives the release the progressive panache to keep you hitting repeat, wanting to be gripped again by the chameleonic transitions between timbres and levels of visceralism. The road-worn narrative of speed, distance and lone-eyed fixation only deepens the spell. It’s a stunning release, and an unquestionable triumph for artists pushing back against the generic banality of AI. Rock roots don’t get much deeper than this.
Highwayman is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Reverbnation.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
