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| From | shawn campbell <thursdayinjune@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | Re: Van Morrison |
| Date | Thu, 19 Oct 2006 00:08:29 -0700 (PDT) |
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I'm a huge Van Morrison fan, and not just the classic
period stuff -- he's put out some strong records over
the past decade and a half (I like Enlightenment,
Hymns to the Silence, and The Healing Game in
particular, so I guess I'm more for his 90s output
when it comes to the "modern" stuff). However, I do
not think the new one is in that category. While I
don't doubt his affection for the genre, I just think
his vocal performances seem halfhearted and rather
bland, and the arrangements uninspired.
I mean sure, it's always great to hear Van sing, but I
tend to recognize a pattern when I see him live -- you
listen to a few songs, and you think, "wow, what an
amazing singer," but then he sings one that he REALLY
likes, something he's not completely sick of, and you
realize that everything else he's been doing up to
that point in the show has been just going through the
motions. That happened when I saw him play this past
spring in support of this record -- he rushed through
the old hits and the selections from the new album,
but the songs he sang the hell out of were a couple of
recent originals like 'Celtic New Year.'
Short version of all this - the country album isn't
bad, but there's plenty of other stuff that is
superior, even in his recent catalog. I'd suggest
trying 'Magic Time' if you want to explore his newer
stuff.
--Shawn
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