amazing

Here's the title track:

Beyond satire, even by typically overcooked PR standards.

Van The Man's new album naming team is apparently on hiatus.

Years ago a friend of mine and I covered the Van Morrison song "Why Must I Always Explain?" but changed the words to "Why Must I Always Complain?" It was fun, and people in the audience got the joke. Even then he had that vibe of "former mystic and pathfinder who doesn't like the Irish tax code etc"

This takes it to a new level. I will definitely give it a listen. The band, as always, will be really good, which might actually might add to the unintentional humor of the lyrics.

I think Van has more talent than most, but he's what my dad would have called a "character".

When I saw the title of this, I thought of "Generic Up-Tempo Folk Song" by the Limelighters.

https://vimeo.com/208256482

"Only A Song":

I've been a Van fan for 30 years. I have every album on cd, several comps and misc things... but man his reaction this past year, along with these miserable, stupid song titles. Ugh. You would think it would be inspired to play around and be creative, not take the worst of the past year and go with that.

sad to admit, but, i think i am done with van morrison.

I've replaced the audio sample of "Only A Song" upthread with the official promo video for that track.

In anticipation of the album's release next Friday, the pre-order price for the Deluxe Edition has been reduced by more than $3, down to $19.79:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XL7PMHM/?tag=imwan-20

WAN more preview before the album comes out -- "Love Should Come With A Warning":

I am SO done with Van Morrison.

Astral Weeks and Moondance are stone classics. A number of his other albums come pretty close. I'm good.

He can't even be bothered to come up with a decent album title. I can't be bothered to put this in my shopping cart.

from yahoo, not from me:


Van Morrison's New Album Is an Utter Embarrassment
Bonnie Stiernberg
Fri, May 7, 2021, 12:05 AM


When Van Morrison first announced his new double album, Latest Record Project, Vol. 1, back in March, we were immediately apprehensive. The legendary singer-songwriter had just come off a highly productive but highly problematic quarantine that saw him spewing his controversial beliefs about COVID-19 in the form four anti-lockdown, anti-mask songs (“Born to Be Free,” “Stand and Deliver” featuring Eric Clapton, “No More Lockdown,” and “As I Walked Out”). Thankfully, those were nowhere to be found on the new record’s tracklist, but other titles like “Where Have All the Rebels Gone?” “They Control the Media,” and — most embarrassingly — “Why Are You On Facebook?” indicated that the project would be plagued by Morrison’s conspiracy theories and anger about the state of the world.

We were right to be worried. Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 is a total shame of a record, so bad that it actively taints the legacy of one of the 20th century’s finest musicians and makes the case that it’s time for him to hang it up. As expected, it’s full of references to the COVID-19 safety measures Morrison was so outspoken against, as well as more general paranoia (“I’m a targeted individual,” he sings on “The Long Con”) and vague criticisms of the media (we never do find out who specifically the “they” refers to on “They Control the Media”). He rails against everything from what he perceives as the downfall of Western civilization (“Western Man”) to gold-diggers (“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”) and yes, the social media platform founded by Mark Zuckerberg. (There are plenty of valid criticisms to be levied at Facebook, of course, but all we get here is “Why do you need second-hand friends?” and “Get a life/Is it that empty inside?”)

Morrison’s never been shy about airing his grievances in song, of course, and his prickly persona is the stuff of legend. But in the past, the vitriol was balanced by stunningly gorgeous songs about love, beauty and nostalgia. Every immature lament about having to answer to the press or fans’ expectations was offset by some of the most soulful, poetic lyrics ever recorded, letting us know that there was a big softie underneath that gruff exterior. (How did we go from “If I ventured in the slipstream / Between the viaducts of your dream / Where immobile steel rims crack / And the ditch in the back roads stop / Could you find me?” to “I got her tickets to the opera, but she complained about the VIP seats/Half a million euro/Said it wasn’t enough/How come if she’s still fit and able, she’s still too lazy to go out and work?”) From front to back — all 28 tracks and two-plus hours — Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 is focused on the negative.


But what’s most frustrating is that Morrison doesn’t seem to care enough to even fully commit to the whole “shaking his fist at the sky” vibe here. On “Only a Song,” he even seemingly tries to walk it all back a little bit by reminding us that these tracks are all just bullshit, anyway. “It’s not set in stone,” he sings. “It’s only a poem that could change in the long run / It’s what I said then just to make it rhyme, could have been on my mind at the time / Putting paper to pen, it’s only a song.” Only a song? For those of us who grew up worshipping Morrison, that doesn’t jibe at all with the passion that’s so obviously present on masterworks like Astral Weeks and Moondance, or even the infectious intensity and high leg-kicks of his legendary Last Waltz performance. How can someone so adept at whipping a crowd into a frenzy or crafting heartbreakingly gorgeous ballads that’ll be played at weddings long after he’s dead be so dismissive of the power of music? How did someone with such zeal for life, who once likened the way nature’s beauty stoned him to his soul to the amazement he felt hearing Jelly Roll Morton for the first time, possibly get to a point where it’s “only” a song? For him to basically shrug and tell us we’re taking it all too seriously isn’t just sad — it’s insulting.

It’s obvious that all of Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 was carelessly thrown together. Sonically, it feels totally phoned-in; it’s by-the-numbers Morrison fare that he could have recorded in his sleep. The album title feels like a placeholder that he just never bothered to replace, and its plain red, imageless cover art looks like it was thrown together in Photoshop in five minutes. Morrison obviously doesn’t have anyone around him in his ear to suggest that maybe this record doesn’t need to be 28 songs long, and he clearly didn’t bother with any kind of self-editing, instead just seemingly presenting us with every half-formed idea he farted out in quarantine.


The most frustrating part of all of this is that at age 75, Morrison’s voice still sounds great. There are brief moments on the album, like the catchy “Love Should Come With a Warning,” where we get an idea of what he’s still capable of, and it’s maddening to think about how good Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 could have been if he just gave a shit and didn’t spend so much time consumed by petty vendettas and baseless conspiracy theories. Ultimately, it’s a sad reminder that creativity and passion do, in fact, have shelf lives for some people, and the Van Morrison who famously howled “It’s too late to stop now!” and flung himself onto his knees at the end of a rousing nine-minute version of “Cypress Avenue” is gone. Maybe it’d be less painful for everyone involved if he had just stopped.

If you want to hate on this album, fine. But I don't care what some self-anointed "music critic" at Yahoo thinks about anything.

just a simple copy and paste, no harm or malice intended.

Renny, have you heard the album?
On April 15th you posted that you were done with Van Morrison, but now you are cut and pasting negative reviews for an album (I am pretty sure) you haven't heard and it can only come from malice.
If I am wrong, and you have heard the album, please post your review.

heard it on spotify, albeit not every song, not all the way through, but some in full and some not. stopped the really bad ones after a minute or two and went on. my rating of it would be 3/10, at best, maybe lower.

reminds me of aa combination of those early van morrison albums that were, and still are, floating around out there from his early days with half-finished songs and bad bad lyrics and the stuff he has done since 2000 that has all the same chord changes and voice inflections and and bad lyrics. i do not think it is very good at all, but like i said i quit buying new van morrison about 4 albums ago when the repetition just got to be too much for me.

my posting of the review was, in all seriousness, done for those who might be interested in another perspective from a professional writer, wherever the writer is from.. if ifind/ found a good review anywhere i would/will post that one too.

no need to be mean about it at all. just unnecessary, i really and truly meant no harm.

sorry if it was offensive to you, linda and anyone else.

Professional critics are an absurdity in an era when we can sample any release on demand and judge with our own ears. I don't need a gatekeeper standing between me and an album to explain how I should feel about it, and I trust that you don't either.

i do not.

i thought i was just providing a service for everyone, it will not happen again.

I enjoy the critics’ perspectives. I may not agree with them, but I appreciate the context the good ones provide. And sometimes they make for good theater. Van has been really leaning into the crazy codger persona during the pandemic, and this album is clearly cranky Van yelling at the sky. But I will check it out to see whether there is any wheat among the chaff.

Just played the lyric video to the title track above. Sorry, but it’s horrible. I’ve been a Van fan since 1967 and have all his albums. Before I buy this one I will stream the rest. Here’s hoping the rest of the tracks are better than this drivel.