Latest news with #RememberingNow
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Van Morrison has a luxury problem: Too many songs to record
Few musicians are so productive in their old age. Every year, Van Morrison - now 79 years old - has been bringing out a new album, and now he has a problem which other recording artists would envy: Too much material. The restless Belfast belter of soulful stream-of-consciousness has recorded so much music that he has a backlog of songs still waiting to be released. "There are new arrangements and projects that have just been sitting there gathering dust," Morrison says in an interview published on his website. "Distribution can only deal with so much at a time. It'd be difficult to get out two records a year. One is manageable." His first original album in three years With his latest album, "Remembering Now," Van Morrison is tackling some of the backlog with songs he recorded years ago. One is the moody opening number "Down To Joy" which movie buffs should recognize as the Oscar-nominated track from the 2021 film "Belfast" by Kenneth Branagh. "That was supposed to come out a long time ago — it's just priorities and timing," Morrison says. The bluesy song is about Belfast, the musician's place of birth and home town in the north of Ireland. "This is who I am. This is where we are. Back in Belfast. This is how I started," he sings. "It's like you never left where you started from." "Remembering Now" is his first album in three years to feature his own songs – for him, an extremely long hiatus. The veteran musician with the unmistakeable iconic voice presents a timeless mixture of pop, folk, soul, blues, jazz and country - trademark Van Morrison. Trying to move past that anti-lockdown business The new songs emerged parallel to the last albums, recorded during the Covid lockdowns. It was a period when Morrison stirred up controversy in his anger over some of the lockdown measures and restrictions imposed on public concerts. "I was getting quite a lot of negative feedback during this period," Morrison said without going into details. The "Brown Eyed Girl" singer faced backlash from some fans for questioning the government response to the pandemic, even singing in "No More Lockdown" that governments were "enslaving" the people. At a time when the UK and Ireland were grappling with one of Europe's worst Covid-19 outbreaks and hundreds were dying every week, Morrison slammed lockdowns and concert limits justified by what he saw as "pseudo-science." Morrison now appears to be trying to move past that period. "I just wanted to do something. And the musicians – we all wanted to do something that was going to be fun," he says. Especially good listening are the melancholic "Haven't Lost My Sense Of Wonder" and the grooving soul number "Back To Writing Love Songs." The lyrics of "Every Time I See A River" is from songwriting legend Don Black ("Diamonds Are Forever", "No Matter What"). And on the topic of whether more music is coming after this, Morrison says: "There's always more music."
-Lewis-McClay-2025.jpeg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26auto%3Dwebp%26quality%3D75%26trim%3D0%2C0%2C0%2C0%26crop%3D&w=3840&q=100)
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Van Morrison Mary Chapin Carpenter Marianne Faithfull
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Van Morrison: Remembering Now (Exile Productions/Virgin Records) ★★★★ Mary Chapin Carpenter: Personal History (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers) ★★★ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marianne Faithfull: Burning Moonlight EP (Decca Records) ★★★★ Mike McKenzie: I'd Wait Again (Metro 13 Music) ★★★★ Such is his prolific flow that it seems barely a week goes by without a new album by Van Morrison. In fact, Remembering Now is only his first album of new material in three years, following collections of skiffle and rock'n'roll covers. Van Morrison | Lewis McClay The past and present ebb and flow across its 14 tracks, as Morrison continues to pay tribute to his musical and geographical roots. Down to Joy is already familiar from the soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh's Belfast while If It Wasn't For Ray ('I wouldn't be where I am today') is a lightly exultant ode to Mr Charles' rocking R&B. The self-soothing hymn Haven't Lost My Sense of Wonder features warm, brooding Hammond organ and gospel reassurance and, as if to prove the point, Back to Writing Love Songs sounds like the burden of grievance has been lifted off his shoulders. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He backs up his claims with the spiritual southern soul of Love, Lover and Beloved and makes light weather of the hard work needed to hold down a relationship on The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours. Stomping Ground crosses over into whimsical nostalgia but the low-slung title track is a more intriguing exploration of what shapes us. Best of all, closing track Stretching Out is a soul jazz saunter which does indeed stretch out to a luxurious nine minutes and is a pleasure all the way. Mary Chapin Carpenter | Contributed Mary Chapin Carpenter also looks back in languor on her latest album. Arriving on the heels of her Looking for the Thread collaboration with Karine Polwart and Julie Fowlis, Personal History was recorded live at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios and produced by Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufmann, with his bandmate Anais Mitchell providing sweet support on the yearning Home is a Song. Telling life stories through song is a running theme, introduced on What Did You Miss and refined on Paint + Turpentine, which ponders the mysteries of creativity. New Religion deals with finding her tribe while The Saving Things is Carpenter's spin on a favourite things list song. Musically, she moves from uncluttered acoustic confessionals to the rootsier rock of Bitter Ender and limpid piano waltz The Night We Never Met with her usual restrained mastery. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Marianne Faithfull | James Robjant Marianne Faithfull's swansong EP comprises four songs recorded in the last year of her life. Like Morrison and Carpenter, she drew inspiration from her own past, specifically her first two albums, Marianne Faithfull and Come My Way, which were released simultaneously in April 1965 on Decca Records. The opening lines of her debut hit As Tears Go By provided a jumping off point for Burning Moonlight, on which Faithfull's commanding voice is accompanied by sonorous strummed guitar. The fuller sound of classy cocktail pop track Love Is, written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar, incorporates spoken word samples of the younger Marianne and the EP is rounded off with two traditional songs attesting to her lifelong love of folk music. Three Kinsmen Bold was originally learned from her father Glynn, while She Moves Thru The Fair is a song she has turned to throughout her career, rendered here as a ghostly a capella. Edinburgh singer/songwriter Mike McKenzie is the spring chicken of the bunch but has lived enough of a life as a musician and frontman to present a sophisticated debut solo album, I'd Wait Again, recorded at Granton's Metro 13 studios. His natural pop voice hits the spot across the ebullient Mr Bang!, big brassy number Control the Tide and the easy, rootsy pop of Sunshine, while the light dusting of Bacharach brass, strings and plangent guitar on Mourn You and Breathe You In are effortlessly but elegantly arranged. Sign up to our FREE Arts & Culture newsletter at CLASSICAL Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Heinrich Biber: Complete Violin Sonatas - 1681 (Delphian) ★★★★★
