Van Morrison - Keep It Simple
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Free Music Notes for Keep It Simple
Free Music Review: the ritual , the spiritual, the voice.
Hit: 5 Stars
the best van album from hyms to the silence? probably.
behind the ritual is trascendent and spiritual...sublime.
lover come back , song of home and end of the land are classic tracks.
very good keep it simple, soul, that's entrainment too.
i love it.
Free Music Review: Van is not a hobgoblin
Hit: 4 Stars
I have almost all of Van's output--minus "The Skiffle Sessions" and the Mose Allison tribute--but I very much agree with Colin Spence's review. The album is not "simple," and the melodies aren't "gorgeous." Also, in the years since "Veedon Fleece" (1974), Van has been a regular whiner about the music business; his complaints were already old on "Hymns to the Silence" (1991).
Yet, as Van has said himself, he makes magic in the studio, so "Keep It Simple" is like every other VM album: damned fine to listen to.
I find Spence's perspective, based as it is on Van's now-early albums, very useful for this particular artist. Unlike Bob Dylan, Van hasn't changed so much as grown. There haven't been any surprises in voice or songwriting style since the "Astral Weeks" and "Moondance" diptych. He's been more of a conservative alchemist than a revolutionary, with a resulting consistency of sound.
That said, there have been albums since 1974 that mean as much to me or more than the ones Spence mentions. (Frankly, I've never been a fan of "Tupelo Honey" except for the title track.)
"It's Too Late to Stop Now" (1974)--the version of 'Wild Children,' especially. It's his best live album.
"Common One" (1980)--criminally underrated. 'Haunts of Ancient Peace' and 'Satisfied' are keynotes.
"Inarticulate Speech of the Heart" (1983)--a bit heavy on the keyboards, but the title track (both vocal and instrumental versions) and 'September Night' are exceptional, as are several other tracks.
"Irish Heartbeat" (1988)--routinely and appropriately acknowledged as one of his finest albums. 'Raglan Road' and 'My Lagan Love' rank with 'Madame George' and 'Comfort You' in the mood department. Not to mention 'She Moved Through the Fair.' (The title track first appeared on "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart.")
"Avalon Sunset" (1989)--This should by all accounts be a really great one (check out 'Coney Island' and 'I'm Tired Joey Boy'), but there's no pleasing everybody.
Many of the bootlegs deserve to be heard as well.
Free Music Review: Average Van Still Better Than Most
Hit: 3 Stars
Keep It Simple - like most latter day Van Morrison - is neither as brilliant as you might hope, nor as disappointing as you might fear.
The problem, for me, is the decline of Morrison's songwriting. While he was never a lyricist in the class of Dylan or Joni Mitchell, he could once conjure marvelous images and had a poet's ear. He also had the vocal chops - blending jazz, blues and soul - to create a unique style of music. Where immobile steel rims crack /And the ditch in the back roads stop /Could you find me? /Would you kiss-a my eyes? /To lay me down /In silence easy /To be born again (Astral Weeks) Those words read well off the page, but as performed by Van Morrison, they were magic. As a singer, he had no peer, and the combination of his words and music lifted Morrison into the highest echelon - alongside Dylan and Mitchell. His best songs were autobiographical but universal, beautifully crafted, tinged with mystery and ambiguity.
While he has had many ups and downs along the way, the deterioration of Morrison's lyrics might be traced to the otherwise triumphant Hymns to the Silence (1991). Since then, there have been a raft of songs about the woes of being Van Morrison in the music business - Professional Jealousy, Why Must I Always Explain?, Big Time Operators, Songwriter, They Sold Me Out, and now, School of Hard Knocks. Then there are the songs about the woes of simply being Van Morrison - Some Peace of Mind, Too Long In Exile, Melancholia, Underlying Depression. Now there's Don't Go the Nightclubs Anymore.
Morrison's response to criticism of his self-absorption is the title song of Keep It Simple: They mocked me 'cos I told it like it was/Wrote about disappointment and greed/Wrote about what we really didn't need in our lives/Make us feel alive and whole.
That brings us to the real problem, which is not so much Morrison's subject matter as his execution. Lyrically, Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore and Keep It Simple (to give but two examples) are simply uninspired. They are too literal, like unedited diary entries. It's one thing to keep it simple, another to make it banal.
Too many recent Van Morrison songs lack any real insight or imagination, let alone the sparkling imagery and wordplay of which he is (or was) capable. At worst, they are little more than a pastiche of hackneyed phrases.
The biggest disappointment on Keep It Simple is Behind the Ritual, in which he literally sings blah blah blah blah. The effect, from the man who sang Madame George and made an art form of repetition (the loves to love/ the loves to love) is self-parody.
So why three stars? Because, lyrics aside, Keep It Simple is a fair collection of songs. They don't score highly for originality, but at this stage of Morrison's career, you wouldn't expect that. The arrangements hardly have a hair out of place. Sans horn section, the album has a consistent, intimate groove. Although there are a variety of song forms (blues, folk, pop) the album feels all of a piece. The band is excellent, especially long-time sideman John Allair on the B3, and the singer, he's Van Morrison for Christ's sake.
The radio-friendly That's Entrainment is the brightest moment - a simple three chords, an infectious underlying rhythm, and a clever play on words (entertainment/entrainment) make this a contender for future 'best of' compilations. Lover Come Back is a simple but effective song of yearning. Song of Home is a nostalgic, folky piece with a lovely sense of place, providing the welcome Celtic quota.
It's worth pondering what you'd make of Keep It Simple if you'd never heard of Van Morrison. My best guess is that I would regard the album as quite a find. (There aren't many unknowns, after all, who can sing like Van Morrison.) The point is that any new work by an artist of Morrison's stature will inevitably be assessed against the standards of the artist's best work.
A lot of new music is lightweight, blatantly derivative, gimmicky, or ephemeral in its appeal. Keep It Simple is none of those. It's better than most stuff that makes it onto, ummm, polycarbonate.
This CD is certainly worth a listen, and there's much to recommend it. Just don't pay too much attention to the words.
Free Music Review: Deceptively simple
Hit: 5 Stars
I agree the last reviewer,Van Morrion's new album may be called Keep It Simple,but it is in title only.These songs are delivered with a performance a younger singer could only dream of one day.The same themes are still present(critics,the music biz,being in love),but delivered by a man who has survived it all,and not quite so bitter(as on earlier works).Astounding melodies,ensemble playing,female background vocals,and a real B-3 organ figure into the songs. It gives me hope for music in 2008,all delivered by a man who makes it sound so "simple".He deserves your ears.Free Music Review: Best and Most 'Van' album since Healing Game
Hit: 4 Stars
I enjoy all Van releases but none more than this since Healing Game..I think primarily because it's consistent (doesn't jump from jump-blues to 40's crooner standards to Van stuff, like Magic Time, and Whats Wrong w/Picture did....And,he's not completely covering another genre (Pay the Devil).. And there's no relatively lightweight pop like Back on Top.....
Keep it Simple is consistent in terms of musical form, and in terms of Van's trademark soulful delivery.
I'm more about feel than lyrical content, but it does have some awkward wording at times ('soul...its not about the color of your skin'), ugh!, I know what he means but, man!).
Of all forms and muses that inform Vans work, his legacy and trademark genious are those songs that
flow out of the Astral Weeks template.
He's for the most part abandoned it since Ancient Highway, unfortunately, (as he said he would,btw), but at times he draws on that feel as he does on Entrainment,Behind the Ritual, and the great live rendition of Little Village....and its still always a slice of heaven!
No more jumping over lots of tunes on a Van release....this is sweet Van listening through and through!