Keep it Simple
is Van Morrison's 35th studio album and the first CD of all original music
that Van has put out since "Back on Top" and on first listen you can hear that Van has drawn his inspiration for this 11-song collection from his usual suspect's list of musical influences: jazz, gospel, blues, etc.
Personally I have loved all the musical sidetrips that Van has made in the past few years,
into C&W, jazz, blues, etc., but I am very happy to have this "back to the future" album by Van. Keep it Simple offers a mix of styles, to be sure, but this album is not a simple mix-and-match of various tunes. There is a feeling here, a unity, that binds the various styles into a nicely fused and organized basket of tunes. Blues numbers like "How Can a Poor Boy" and "Don't Go to Nightclubs Any More" sit side-by-side with pure only-Van-could-write-these songs like the bouncy "That's Entrainment" (one of my favorites on the album) and the slower, but just as lilting "No Thing." What really stuns me about this ablum though are the songs that seem drawn from another place and time. The soulful storytelling of "Song of Home" seems pulled right from the pages of a Stephen Foster songbook--replete with plucking banjo strings and the nicest backing vocals you'll hear this side of heaven (or perhaps this side of a Ray Charles album). I am also really awed by Van's seemingly magical ability to write love songs at will: "Lover Come Back" is a song you'll swear you've heard a thousand times and tops past greats like "Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You)" and "Someone Like You" with its deep emotionally plaintive refain.
I think a lot of people (but why??? has he not ALWAYS delivered?) have doubted Van's ability to "still" write perfect songs ("Tupelo Honey," "Moondance" or "The Healing Game" come to mind), but this album should silence those doubts: the title song "Keep It Simple" is as great as Van gets. The opening acoustic guitar riff is just what the title implies: simple, beautiful, minimal--gorgeous. And as simple as that tune is, "Behind the Ritual," is deep with a richness and color that few songwriters would even attempt to attain. This is a song that lulls you into its melody with crisp snare shots and a completely unexpected ukelele (strummed by Van himself) and then delivers you to the raw soul of a song that offers nothing short of an "Astral Weeks" gift of reflection. What is that passion for romance (in its largest sense), that Van has carried so tightly in his music since his teens? How does he channel those memories, those dreams?
Van Morrison is frequently held to a critical standard so high (the burden of genius, I guess) that no singer could ever hope to achieve--yet here, once again, Van leaps in easy strides over that high mark to set even higher standards. Van Morrison is the greatest songwriter and singer of my generation and while some criticts will say that this album doesn't have the genuine inspiration-driven power of, say, "The Healing Game," or "Back on Top," it is nonetheless one of his finest albums Van has ever created and proof that Van has many gifts and many songs to share.
Just listen to "That's Entrainment" if you think Van isn't the greatest living master of melody-driven song: who else is writing songs that recreate a Sam Cooke-level soul vocal married to a Drifter's handclapping? This is great stuff. And beneath all of the great music, the driving passion, the poetry, the intensity that only Van can provide.
The band on this album is fantastic and includes my good friend John Platania on guitar and longtime Van sideman David Hayes on bass. This is a perfect album from Van and it comes at a wonderful time in his career and, perhaps not surprisingly considering the genius Van has for knowing his market, the album placed higher on the charts (#10) than any previous Van Morrison album. For a man that has walked his own road for nearly 50 years and never doubted his gift, never looked back at the nay-sayers, that is an awesome reward. It is a reward completely deserved.
Van Morrison's The Healing Game
I do a regular FM radio show on WPKN in Bridgeport, CT and for the past 10 years or so the first hour of each show has been devoted exclusively to the music of Van Morrison. Why? Because I think that when you listen to Van's music you're in the presence of a true musical genius. One thing I don't try to do is to over-analyze Van's music and I don't care one iota for talk of his personal life, so when I listen to an album I'm only interested in one thing: how does it grab me at a soul level? Does this music rock my world? Also, while Van has proven that he is a master of virtually all types of popular music--blues, soul, jazz, country, skiffle--I am, like so many others, mostly devoted to his spiritual explorations and his more mystical music.
All that said, I'm often asked which are my favorite Van Morrison albums. I have a few, but the one that seems to come to mind quite often is The Healing Game (when I have time I'll also review Hymns to the Silence, my other favorite). The reason that THG gets to me is hard to say. I just know that from the first time I put this album into the CD player I was taken away to another world: this is Van Morrison at his finest and (almost) most mystical. Songs like "Fire in the Belly" and "Rough God Goes Riding" are a master poet and musician flying along at the height of his craft. The vocals, the horn arrangments, the power of these songs is incredible. But underlying every song on this album is the searching, seeing, mystical power of this extraordinary singer.
The title song, incidentally, is one of my top three or four Van Morrison songs. It's one of the most powerful songs he's ever recorded and to have seen him perform it live as the show closer, as he circles the band, drops the mic and disappears into the wings is an experience I'll never forget. This is an awesome album.
Blind Boys of Alabama If I Had a Hammer
I have always loved gospel music but only recently started building a collection of gospel cds. There is so much gospel out there that it takes a while to find out what's great soulful gospel and what's not. I've spent a lot of time listening to gospel music on the radio when I can find it and just reading about different gospel groups and albums online. "If I Had a Hammer" by the Blind Boys of Alabama is one of the best albums I've found. It's a live album and their versions of Pete Seeger's title track, of the great gospel standard "Didn't it Rain" (which they call simply "Rain" on this album) and a killer version of "Amazing Grace" are the standouts for me.
The Blind Boys of Alabama have been performing in one incaranation or another (and are still performing) for something like 40 years and they've got the gospel thing down. I've yet to see them in concert but after hearing this ablum I'm going to go way out of my way to see them next time they're around. If you're looking for one good rollicking gospel album to add to your collection, this one will have you dancing all over the house in no time--just put a dust mop in your hands and let the good times roll.
Iris Dement's Infamous Angel
For some peculiar reason Iris Dement has only recorded a very few albums and most of them are good, but nothing exceptional. This album is exceptional. In fact, this is an extraordinary album by any standard. If I had to make a list of 10 albums to take with me to a desert island (and I wish that would happen soon), this would be one of them, no question. If you were a fan of the TV show Northern Exposure, you will know Iris' wonderful song "Our Town" as the song that was played over the closing credits of the final episode. That song is on this album. So is her song "Let the Mystery Be" (a song that she'll tell you in concert is perhaps the most played song at funerals ever!).
Iris Dement is just a small quiet-looking person but when she steps on stage to sing, she opens that pretty mouth and out roars a freight train of pure country/bluegrass soul and twangy country gospel. If you ever get the chance to see her in person, just go, don't hestitate. Pay whatever they're asking (weirdly enough, it's usually not much) and tie yourself to your seat: the freight train will be arriving shortly. I promise you, if you buy this album you will put "Our Town" on replay and listen to it all night long. It'll make you cry.
Van Morrison's Astral Weeks
This is the mother of all Van Morrison albums--in many ways: spiritually, musically, mystically and improvisationally. This album was recorded in less than 48 hours in New York City in 1968 (among the other great musicians on it was jazz drummer Connie Kay) and it has remained the single album that all other Van Morrison albums--for better or worse--are compared to. It is an album full of mysticism, poetry, love, joy, sadness, exuberance and dancing and it reveals the (to me) gut wrenching anguish and passion of a young (he was in his early 20's) Van Morrison trying to come to terms with teenage love, his desire to throw his life into the music world and his intense desire to be both improvisational and perfect at the same time: a conflict that I think has haunted Van's approach to music for his entire career.
If you've ever laid on your bed at night with your chin pressed against the window sill and listened to the sounds of the night and wondered about the mystery of it all (oh come on, you know you have), you will like this album. Listen to "Sweet Thing" or "Cypress Avenue" and you'll be brought right back to the first time you fell in love, the first time you hung out on a street corner after school hoping the love of your life would stroll by, the first time you wondered about your place in the universe.
You must own this album. And for what Amazon is selling it for ($8) new, you should order it immediately. It is, quite possibly, the best album ever recorded.