Van Morrison is back to doing what he’s actually good at-and he makes it partly worth our while.
The musician has needed no introduction for several decades now. A songwriter from Belfast who has been an essential element of combining genres like Dylan-found his own sound. Morrison has lived quite a public life, his art going through transformations just like he has. In that way, he is a true musician, life reflecting art in the truest form. Armed with his guitar, he has been able to poetically represent waves of thoughts, while layering it with joyous instrumental exploration.
Morrison has lived quite a public life, his art going through transformations just like he has.
Like his track says, he is back to writing love songs. It might be the time and place he is in now, but everything is written about living in the present. It is prose with rhythm, and he tailors it as such. As a multi-instrumentalist, he can still find depth in composition that you might not hear others do.
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After many years, you can hear that this is the same musician who wrote Astral Weeks (1968). It’s been close to half a century from then, and these songs are a reminder that washed out love songs are still something humans are hopeful to hear. The blues infusion he is able to do will always remain unique, things artists like Springsteen and Costello have been heard replicating-finding their own niche.
The blues infusion he is able to do will always remain unique, things artists like Springsteen…
Like older albums, he introspects how he reached where he is now, in the journey of music. You actually feel a thrill in knowing this history, rather than the sudden fierce political stance he took with Clapton during the lockdown. He still loves a lot of little beautiful observations about the world-and the symphonies line up with that same wonder. Van Morrison is and will always remain a splendid musician-and this album does a great job celebrating the present.
He still loves a lot of little beautiful observations about the world-and the symphonies line up
This is why he is so revered. Astral Weeks was made with a group of jazz musicians who were mostly session artists. Yet, what convened during those recordings is the foundation of many concept albums that have since been made. He takes you to Dublin, and the same way he is able to take you places. Here, it’s reflecting on mortality and his age, and the things he has written about.
Does writing so much music repeatedly about things jade you? It is a possibility, is it not? There are cinematic representations in songs like Memories And Visions that sound like slam poetry-with strings that will make you emotional. His voice is as young as ever, but it ripples in moments with age, where he sounds like he is thinking between segments.
It is in tracks like When the Rain Comes-where is genius in writing this storytelling comes through. Not his vocal or lyrics specifically, but how he is able to paint the scene with such precision and poise. Van Morrison is singing about some of the same things again, maybe because he misses singing about them. And all the moments we’ve lost touch of its importance in our lives, on a daily basis.
…he is able to paint the scene with such precision and poise.
This is old school songwriting. Connections between people, elements and the bridge between the virtual and real. He is a musician who has supposedly found all this meaning in the real-and the virtual holds no dimension for him whatsoever. Maybe in this, Van Morrison is repeating a portion of his life that our generation hasn’t ever listened to in real time. This is music from yonder, with all that wonder.
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He is a musician who has supposedly found all this meaning in the real-and the virtual holds no dimension for him whatsoever.
It’s a slight return all of us waited for, and he’s able to create or re-create the things of spiritual inspiration that brought him on this path. This is the same artist Lester Bangs couldn’t stop praising-the transcendent musician who is able to plant seeds of thoughts in our minds to grow organically, bearing fruits into reality. When he plays music like Colourblind, he throws references of music that raised him-while his words draw deeper elements into your psyche.
The final song is easily the masterpiece, and he’s kept it there for the patient ones. This is the tune that builds from vocal Celtic tunes to the bluesy, jazz expressions he developed for the world. Over 8 minutes long, it’s him relaxing into the world he now knows. Symbolic and refreshing-a repetitive string section plays as the pendulum of the song, while Van Morrison prepares a sketch of someone he might or might not know.
from vocal Celtic tunes to the bluesy, jazz expressions he developed for the world.
The song doesn’t end for the sake of ending-but also projects the epic it will turn out to become in your mind. Balanced in tonality, this is him with a band that understands his groove and rhythm-and comes to respect that. Remembering Now is an ode to today, tomorrow and the day you will listen to this album. That’s how close to the present the poet of new comes:
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