Van Morrison – Remembering Now Music CD

Review

Forty-seven albums into a 58-year recording career, Van Morrison proves he’s still got things to say and play on Remembering Now.

Though it runs some 70 minutes, the album has nothing that qualifies as filler among its 14 tracks, reinforcing the 79-year-old Morrison’s astonishing late-career creativity.

Morrison writes about his music (the title track), gratitude (“Love, Lover and Beloved”) and his youth in Northern Ireland on “Stomping Ground;” the latter pair being but two of a handful of orchestral ballads that recall Morrison’s Enlightenment era.

And Morrison does a lot of recycling on Remembering Now, most obviously on “If it Wasn’t for Ray,” a slowed-down recasting of “Wild Night,” and the “Tupelo Honey” soundalike that is “Haven’t Lost My Sense of Wonder.”

Amid these rehashes are a couple of tracks headed for Morrison’s canon. “Down to Joy” is a horn-driven delight casting the prickly singer in contentment and “Cutting Corners” is a humble admission of Morrison “feeling low but … acting strong;” both would fit nicely on a concert playlist loaded with classics from his discography.

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— dean, jambands.com

Product Details

Van Morrison's new album, Remembering Now, marks his return to original music with a rich blend of soul, jazz, blues, folk and country, featuring the long-awaited single, “Down To Joy.”