"What Has Been and What Will Be" announces itself with the kind of shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars that defined the early 1990s—a period when bands like Slowdive and Ride discovered that you could make guitars sound like cathedrals, like weather systems, like the very texture of longing itself. Leonard clearly knows this territory intimately. The track opens with layers of distortion that feel less like noise and more like atmosphere, building a wall of sound that envelops the listener in its gossamer embrace.

Yet this is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Where lesser artists might be content to simply recreate the past, Leonard brings a contemporary urgency to his approach. The production, handled with evident care at Norway's Woods Studio, strikes a delicate balance between the woozy dreamscape of classic shoegaze and a more muscular, anthemic rock sensibility. The mix allows each element room to breathe while maintaining the genre's characteristic density—a technical achievement that shouldn't go unremarked.

The single's thematic content proves equally compelling. Leonard grapples with the universal human tendency to become mired in retrospection, that dangerous impulse to spend our present currency on purchasing nothing more than regret. It's a subject that could easily tip into platitude, yet the songwriter navigates these waters with admirable restraint. His lyrics don't preach; they contemplate. They don't offer easy answers; they sit with the questions.

The track's architectural pinnacle arrives in its outro section, where Leonard builds toward a crescendo that feels genuinely earned rather than mechanically imposed. As guitars swell and drums thunder, a mantra emerges: "We can't intervene in what has been, but we can change what will be." It's a simple sentiment, perhaps, but delivered with such conviction and wrapped in such glorious noise that it transcends its own simplicity. This is shoegaze at its most purposeful, using volume and texture not as ends in themselves but as vehicles for emotional catharsis.

Leonard's vocal performance deserves particular mention. Rather than competing with the instrumental surge, he wisely allows his voice to become another layer in the sonic tapestry, at times almost subsumed by the guitars and drums, at others emerging with clarity and purpose. It's an approach that requires confidence—the willingness to serve the song rather than dominate it.

The single functions as a preview of Leonard's forthcoming album, which shares its title, and if this track serves as any indication, that longer work promises to be a substantial addition to the shoegaze canon. "What Has Been and What Will Be" suggests an artist who understands that looking backward and moving forward need not be contradictory impulses—that we can honour our influences while forging our own path, that we can acknowledge the weight of the past while refusing to be crushed by it.

In Tom Leonard, Manchester has produced another worthy torchbearer for its rich musical heritage. This single doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it spins that wheel with considerable skill and genuine feeling. Sometimes that's more than enough.