Van Morrison - Magic Time
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Free Music Notes for Magic Time
Free Music Review: Van The Man, is back again!
Hit: 5 Stars
This a return to form for the master! The best album since "Days Like This". Evening Train, Gypsy In My Soul, and Just Like Greta are all standouts. If you think Morrison can't do it any more, think again!Free Music Review: Van at his best
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is just fantastic, every song is good, the music flows right through you. Van Morrison at his very best, hope the upcoming album is just as good......Free Music Review: Good retro Van
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a very good return to the older style of Van Morrison. Very enjoyable but nothing new. Free Music Review: USA
Hit: 4 Stars
I really enjoy this cd when I just want to sit back and relax. It is great music to have playing in the background when people are over and you are entertaining.Free Music Review: Do you believe in magic in a young girl's heart
Hit: 5 Stars
I have waited until the next release from Van Morriston before I review the last one even though I love Magic Time. Readers might wonder why I chose to do so.
When Magic Time came out I bought it on the first day and I loved it. All of it. Every single track. Not one doubt. I listened to it for weeks every time I was in the car and at home and, I still loved it. Then I began to read the other reviews. Even those who applaud it have some snide remarks about where Van is coming from or his choice of songs or his sincerity. One of my best friends who has liked Van for even longer than I have (and that is a long time) said he no longer listened to him because of his constant carping about the music business and "because he is a miserable old bugger". Quite.
Pay the Devil is a country album which I will be reviewing in the next few days. Getting back to Magic Time however, this is where I take issue with his supporters and detractors about the album. For many of us Van Morrison has two major qualities, his expression of the feelings and emotions that people express in R & B songs through his amazing voice, and the songs he writes a poet and composer.
This collection of songs covers many different aspects of blues and a variety of vocal expressions. I chose the title of this review from a Lovin' Spoonful song, one stanza of which goes like this...
"If you believe in magic don't bother to choose
If it's jug band music or rhythm and blues
Just go and listen it'll start with a smile
It won't wipe off your face no matter how hard you try
Your feet start tapping and you can't seem to find
How you got there, so just blow your mind"
and this particular quote captures everything you can say about this album. To meet one challenge head on, Van may write about his experiences in the music business and may have just cause. If it causes him pain, or his family or aspiring musicians, then he has a right to sing about it. It is a personal experience to him and his music is after all his expression. How he writes about it, how he sings about it, how he plays about it, how he accompanies about it is the thing we consume. Yes, we are entitled to our own opinions (and it is a free country isn't it?) but you know, a lot of us want to enjoy his music and to be frank I for one, do not care whether anyone else has views about Van Morrison and his life or not. I like his music.
Here endeth the diatribe. One of my favourite tracks is the gospel inspired "They Sold Me Out" a spiritual song about Jesus at the end of his life and the role of money, a strong metaphor for civil society in the West, and perhaps for how the artist feels about his career. Neil Young's last album had a strong nostalgic tone, but one very different from Van's. Whereas the Young album was a sugary tone this album is a bittersweet one. Celtic New Year is fantastic, with the vocal track as the lead instrument sustaining the song throughout and the clear enunciation of the words and the interwined instrumental accompaniment, he is certainly in superb form with such class and ease, rather like a Rolls Royce compared to a Ford.
To me, one of the great things about people who excel in performing the blues is that they sing or play about themselves to a large degree and you know that it is their feelings which lead to their capacity to express those through their music. Can't buy Me Love, sang the Beatles and there is much truth in that. Material success can make many things easier but we are still human after all. Look at Eric Calpton as an exemplar. Much of this album is a great expression and probably the reaon why I love it. Listen to the harmonica on Keep Mediocrity at Bay, or the impassioned plea for privacy on Just Like Greta. I don't know but sometimes I think that Van Morrison albums are not the culmination of a process but the start of one. You listen to the songs and you start to look into their meanings or you start to follow up on things like Greta Garbo's private life for instance.
One of the joys of this album is the sheer breadth of the subtleties of blues that Van uses to articulate his feelings. His vocal delivery is awesome throughout and the instrumentation reflects his obesession with perfection yet delivers the expression intact. I have no qualms either with some of the crooning. It is just another tool to express himself.
In summary it seems to me, as a mere consumer of music that Magic Time is an expression of Van Morrison feeling that he can express himself as he wishes. It is his freedom which is the magic time. My interpretation is that he no longer needs to satisfy anyone else about his work. So long as he is satisfied he can release the work to the world and say 'This is who I am". I applaud him for that. He is not someone who feels that he must churn out what the public desires or thinks they desire to stay at the top of his game. Magic Time is Enlightenment.
Like I said, I love this album. And, having played Pay the Devil several times, I love that one too. The next review will not be as long in coming.