Van Morrison - Hymns to the Silence
|
Our Price: $49.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $19.98 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Hymns to the Silence
Free Music Review: An epic from Van's neglected period....
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an epic masterpiece from Van, with no wasted songs or words. It's slowly turning into one of my favorite Van albums. Van made a lot of great albums in the 1990's, but aside from his fans (who still buy his works), most industry "experts" ignored him. It's their loss. This is one of his most complex, eclectic albums, with some of the best, most moving work he's ever done. I'm Not Feeling It Anymore is an angry song, one of Van's songs where he complains about his life, but despite this, I still really like it. It's not an alienating song. Other songs in this vein are Some Peace of Mind and Why Must I Always Explain. They're also really good, despite Van's anger. The cover of I Can't Stop Loving You (with The Chieftains) is incredibly moving. Village Idiot is a real charmer. Van's cover of See Me Through Part II (Just a Closer Walk with Thee) is one of his best songs, and a great cover of a great gospel ballad. Van's monologue during the song sends this song into that great spiritual realm that Van has gone to his whole career. Take Me Back is another great epic Van song, along with the title track, one of Van's most beautiful songs. The title track is phenomenal, a deep, mystic, spiritual epic. The songs On Hyndford Street and Pagan Streams are spoken word songs, and On Hyndford Street is as haunting as anything Van has recorded. Many songs (like See Me Through Part II) really shine with great interplay between the organist and the pianist (something Van's 90's album did exceptionally well). The Chieftains make appearances here, enhancing the songs beautifully (most notably on a cover of I Can't Stop Loving You). This CD was out of print for a while, but it's was supposed to be remastered in September 2008. We're still waiting.
Free Music Review: I'm astounded many ..........
Hit: 5 Stars
...pick & choose,pull apart these 2 discs.I red lined my cassette recording copy of both and fire it back through a 16 channel Mackie mixing board,Peavey amps,subs,mids,horns blah blah blah and every single composition laid down here is pure and fine love from the soul.Now,who can't feel that?You know Van.This was 14 years ago on here.....his oldness is slowing him down tremendously.He DOES show up for gigs too!!Free Music Review: An Ambitious Project
Hit: 4 Stars
Hymns To The Silence is one of those recordings I owned on cassette, but hadn't yet got around to replacing it with CDs. Since I rarely play cassettes anymore, it lay neglected in its case for years until recently. When I played it through again, I realized that I had been missing some great music so when I saw the CD on sale recently at San Diego's Mojo Records for 14 dollars I couldn't resist the upgrade.
Before reviewing the CD, I read other reviewers' comments and was surprised by the number of reviewers who strongly liked one disc but thought the other filler. In my view, there are some great songs and a few throwaways on both of them. And I think its funny that some reviewers complain about Van's religious songs. Hey, Van is a spiritual guy! Get over it!
On disc one, my favorites are Professional Jealousy, Ordinary Life, So Complicated, and the soulful See Me Through Part II.
On disc two, I like All Saints Day, Be Thou My Vision, Carrying A Torch, Quality Street (the music more than the words), It Must Be You, and I Need Your Kind of Loving.
What's a throwaway? Well, I'm not much into his childhood narratives, we've heard them all before. And then there is the incessant griping about the price of fame. But other than the few songs in those veins there are a lot of worthwhile songs including a few that are among Van's best such as the previously mentioned Ordinary Life, Carrying A Torch and It Must Be You. If the lyrics weren't so trite and repetitious, Quality Street would be in that rank as well.
I have been a Van Morrison fan from the beginning and so have heard his high points and his low. Hymns To the Silence is an ambitious project of such scope that it would be hard for him to be on top of his game musically for the duration, and he isn't. So I can't give this CD five stars. There are many Van Morrison albums that are superior overall to this one. But the quality of the music is enough to give it a four-star rating. So if you are a Van Morrison fan, Hymns to the Silence belongs in your CD collection.
Free Music Review: INSPIRATIONAL MASTERPIECE
Hit: 5 Stars
Hymns To The Silence is an opus magnum where Morrison's talent reaches awesome new heights. The album impresses on many levels: the lyrical ingenuity, melodic beauty, intelligent arrangements and above all the expert mastery of many different musical styles, including country, folk, soul, rock and gospel. Although every track is memorable and tuneful, my favourites include I'm Not Feeling It Anymore with its galloping rhythms and flowing melody, the rocking Ordinary Life, a wry observation on life, the jaunty, jazzy So Complicated and the beautiful authentic country song I Can't Stop Loving You.
Very personal observations like Professional Jealousy and Why Must I Always Explain have more of the folky feel about them, especially the second one with its hypnotic melody line. Perhaps the greatest moment is Be Thou My Vision, an extraordinarily powerful hymn that is one of this artist's best descriptions of spiritual ecstasy.
In this regard, the title track is gripping too, but more subdued and restrained, creating a feeling of awe. See Me Through (Just A Closer Walk With Thee) is also very moving but a more traditional slice of gospel and it reminds me of Astral Weeks. The soulful song Take Me Back with its wistful harmonica likewise has a touch of that great album.
Hymns To The Silence is an uplifting work of genius on a par with Astral Weeks, Moondance and Tupelo Honey but provides greater variety than any of them. Every track here has some special quality and the alternating musical styles make it a wonderful and inspiring listening experience.
Free Music Review: i just have to sing my hymns
Hit: 4 Stars
im 31 i went to catholic school and van singing made me more in tune with god than all those years did van where were you before i turned 5 i would have went to public damn