On April 1st, Lost Highway will proudly release Keep It Simple, the new album from Van Morrison. Keep It Simple is Morrison's first album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he composed all 11 songs specifically for one album. In the interim the legendary artist had a year that may be unprecedented for any living artist, having released three separate collections of his hits, with the latest, Still On Top entering the UK charts at #2 and selling platinum, proving the ongoing appetite for his unrivalled work. His music has always incorporated the widely varied influences he heard and absorbed since his childhood days on the streets of Belfast- long before the bands of his youth and his initial breakthrough with the band he started early on- called "Them." On Keep It Simple, Morrison honors all those varied influences - Ulster-Scots Celtic, Jazz, Folk, Blues, Country, Soul and Gospel - and an added surprise of a mighty Ukelele -most times melding them all together at once creating his unmistakable signature sound. In some of these songs Morrison addresses the propaganda of the myth perpetrating rock music world. There is a definite theme that recurs throughout the album, especially in the title track. In keeping with that idea, Keep It Simple does not boast the big horns or expected string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty.
Those familiar with Van Morrison's ever mercurial muse could hardly have been surprised when he turned up on the artistically centered, avant-country label Lost Highway to pay tribute to a era-spanning slate of country icons on the Nashville imprint's '06 collection, Pay the Devil. But while the ensuing years were dominated by several rich anthologies of Morrison's work, he's returned here to masterfully show his love of country was no passing fancy. As the title suggests, Morrison's self-produced approach to the genre is both musically and emotionally elemental, a no frills approach that fits him like a well-worn pair of Tony Llamas. Indeed, even as he's addressing matters of musical style and substance in an unusually introspective way on "That's Entertainment" and "Soul," the veteran's singing here is so natural and deceptively effortless as to disguise how forcefully Morrison has immersed himself in the country mold - or, more to the point, remade it lovingly in his own image, also marking the first time in several years he's penned all the songs on one of his albums. Whether offering a little tutelage about the vagaries of fate on "School of Hard Knocks," taking W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" as the starting point for the slow-burning, Hammond B3-seeped country blues lament "Don't Go to Nightclubs Anymore," or preaching the backroads Zen gospel of the title track and Banjo-seasoned elegy "Song of Home," Morrison's warm, world-weary voice connects with themes that are as familiar as sunshine - and every bit as fundamentally complicated. --Jerry McCulley
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
van again:
a beautiful album. the title 'keep it simple' says it all.
right to the hart, love it!
Van Morrison-not so simple:
Listening to this new CD takes me back to the "rocker" days of my youth. I loved it and often put it in a 6 CD rotation with Delbert, Willie and Ray Charles!!!
Van Morrison - Keep It Simple:
Excellent CD. I don't think he will ever put out something as great as "Into the Mystic", etc., but this is really a good CD.
any van morrison album is good:
As a long time Van Morrison fan, I have nearly everything he has ever recorded. The songwriting is not up to that of his best work but that is a very high standard to achieve. This is a spare sound that he apparently intentionally achieves. It gives plenty of room to appreciate his voice and the way he and only very few others can interpret a song. I enjoy the album but would rank it in the middle to maybe lower third of his work. That still ranks it as better than just about anything else out there.... more info
