Van Morrison Keeps It Simple
Van Morrison’s new album ‘Keep It Simple’ comes out today, April 1st. You can still hear the heavy influence of American R&B and blues in Van’s voice and in all eleven songs, which he wrote.
The album conjures up a taste of “Tupelo Honey” and “Into the Mystic,” rather than “Domino” or “Blue Money,” which suites me just fine, even though it will probably disappoint some music critics, who won’t hear a single right away.
There’s a gospel feel, like Sweet Honey In The Rock did on Paul Simon’s “Love Me Like A Rock.” The choir like backing vocals work well against Van’s voice, and sometimes render a sound from yesterday’s hit parade, like “No Thing.” Organ is present throughout the album, which works well with the gospel feel of the backing vocals, but I miss the grand piano of past songs like “Into The Mystic.”
The instrumentation is more guitar based than horns, but it works wonderfully; at times, it’s reminiscent of sixties soul like Wilson Pickett, and at other times sounds more rootsy and down home, like a good old folk song. Case in point, is the waltz like “Song Of Home,” with it’s finger picking guitars, banjo and steel guitar.
My favorite track is “Don’t Go To Nightclubs Anymore.” It’s hard to forget lyrics like “the smoke has driven me out the door” and “alcohol was too big a price,” especially when it’s sung with such conviction. You just know he’s been there personally.
Van’s not a legend in his own mind, that’s for sure. The guitars are clean, and the sound is crisp; you can even feel the drummer’s wire brushes swish on the snare drum.
The title track “Keep It Simple” does just that. Morrison opens the song finger picking a ukulele, accompanied by accordion, guitar, bass and drums. Van implores us to get back to something simple to save ourselves…to keep it simple and that’s that.
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2 Responses to “Van Morrison Keeps It Simple”
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Mike Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pmWell that’s cool. A thank you with links to previews. losthighwayrecords.com gives you the entire song in just a browser window. Tour dates on vanmorrison.com. The BBC site has a lot of cool interviews too. I’d never heard of web sheriff, but it makes sense the record companies would hire online marketing firms like them to crawl the web for posts relating to their artists.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 pm
WEB SHERIFF
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Hi MR,
On behalf of Lost Highway Records, many thanks for your review of Van Morrison’s new album and, if your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, full versions of “That’s Entrainment” and “Behind The Ritual” (along with album track samplers) are available for fans and bloggers to listen to (and link to) on Lost Highway’s web-site at http://www.losthighwayrecords.com .
Up-to-the-minute info on Keep It Simple and Van’s 2008 shows is, of course, also available on http://www.vanmorrison.com and http://www.myspace.com/vanmorrison and, for a limited period, you can still hear Van’s exclusive BBC sessions and interview at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/event_vanmorrison.shtml.
Thanks again for your support.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF