Van Morrison: Keep It Simple

[michelej1]

April 11, 2008, Nottingham Post

HEADLINE: CD review: Van Morrison - keep it simple (4/5)

BODY:


Van Morrison: Keep It Simple (Polydor)

IF you're looking for anything innovative or different from Van The Man, this isn't the place to start - and let's face it, you're probably going to be disappointed anyway. Stylistically, Keep It Simple sounds exactly like every Morrison album since the 80s. But when the music is as heartfelt and emotive as this, it's difficult to be critical. His first album of all-new material for two years, it takes the usual mixture of jazz, folk, blues, country, soul and gospel and, just in case all that's not enough, throws in a ukelele as well. Ex-Fleetwood Mac guitar genius Peter Green turns on up on a few tracks and the quiet clarity of his work surprises. Lyrically it's concerned with melancholy, nostalgia and the odd flash of bitterness, but Morrison thrills on tracks like Soul, the title track and the oddly named That's Entrainment.

Out now SEAN HEWITT