CD - Van Morrison: Keep It Simple

Another year, another Van the Man album - he says he's never been happier, in control of his own output and organising his own distribution deals on a record by record basis. So, is this new found contentment reflected in the latest in the extensive catalogue.

It certainly seems to reflect its title. The recording is pretty stripped back - no horn ensembles, an occasional sax solo from Van adding the only brass colour to what is basically a guitar, bass, keyboard and drums band. As usual the players are top notch and its particularly pleasing to see the great John Platania (guitarist on the fabulous recordings Van made with the Caledonia Soul Orchestra) back in the fold and playing as well as ever.

The songs are also relatively straight forward - quite a few are blues or blues based, adding weight to the assertion that this is Morrison returning to his roots, at least to a degree. There are also a couple of ballads that hark back to his 70s output, especially to my mind "His Band And The Street Choir". 'Lover Come Back' in particular seems to echo the feel of that album.

The sound quality of the album is also first rate and that, coupled with the fairly consistent vibe that the band puts together, makes for a coherent listen. A lot of the players on the album have played with Van many times over the years and it shows. However, the Keep It Simple theme also applies in part to the songs - there are relatively few stand out tracks and I'm used to highlighting at least one track on a Morrison CD that I'd add to a personal Morrison Best Of collection. 'How Can A Poor Boy', 'Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore' (do I detect a little humour), 'Soul', 'No Thing' and the title track pass muster but much of the rest is just run of the mill Morrison

Whether or not run of the mill Morrison is good enough for you or whether on this occasion the prosaic nature of much of the material leaves you a more than a little disappointed only you can decide. Even among his more recent material (which some argue has been Van by numbers) I wouldn't put this one up as the one to buy, but there's probably enough here to keep the Morrison die hard (like me) reasonably happy.