Its Now or Never

Built on the Italian melody of 'O Sole Mio' and burned into memory by Elvis in 1960, It's Now or Never came to him through his love of international pop. Its urgency — love can't wait, it's now or never — sits comfortably next to the ghazal's own conviction that the beloved's presence is always already slipping away.

He gives it an Afghan frame without sanding off its foreign accent, which is his fusion method in miniature: not to translate the outside world into something local, but to keep both registers alive in the same three minutes.