Van Morrison

Born to Sing, No Plan B Blue Note***

Van goes dubstep? Or, Van continues ploughing pretty much the same musical furrow he’s been at for the past 40 years? It’s the latter, of course, but where often in the past familiarity quickly led to apathy, Morrison’s 34th studio album is one of his best in quite some time. Recorded live, effectively, in a Belfast studio, these nine new songs (plus a lyric-added Close Enough For Jazz, which appeared as an instrumental on 1993’s Too Long In Exile) reflect Morrison’s continuing exploration of jazz and blues.

While lyrically he ruminates on financial crises and (once again) the pressures of being Van the Man, musically it's all jazzy breezes (Going Down to Monte Carlo) and leisurely blues (Pagan Heart). Nothing new then, but the same-old same-old somehow sounds fresher. Life in the old dog yet. vanmorrison.com

Download tracks:Open the Door (to Your Heart), Born to Sing, Pagan Heart