So let's say you come over to my place and sit in the good seat and I play you some of the new Van Morrison record. And after five songs you think, well, this isn't too bad. Maybe not his best work, but OK for an old guy making his 43rd studio album. Absolutely Positively The Most isn't bad, a quasi-spiritual tune that sneaks in a single reference to lock down. I Ain't No Celebrity and Stage Name are both just OK, but Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and Pretending are actually pretty good ones from Van The Man. But those are the last five tracks, and the ten before those are all Van ranting about lock down, the government is lying (and the media, too), etc. etc. blah blah blah. Even if you agree with his politics, it's a difficult listen at best. I mean, in the past when Van would go on about the music business treating him so badly (his net worth is only 90 million), it got old, but it was only one song per record.
The good news is that the music is at least as good as Van's recent better work. Roll With The Punches, The Prophet Speaks, and Three Chords And The Truth were all pretty good, and musically similar to this, and Van is singing fine. But the lyrical content is just him ranting like the anti-vax, paranoid, I have to get out and play millionaire whiner that he has become. I enjoyed Van Morrison's work throughout his career, and stuck with him even through the lesser records. But this one is even worse than Latest Record Project Volume 1. Maybe not really worse- the ratio of decent songs that aren't ranting is about the same, but that was two CDs, and this is just one CD, so there's less redemption here.
Music is OK, singing is good, and again, the best way to enjoy this one is by being unfamiliar with the English language so you don't realize how much garbage he's spewing. I should point out that Van Morrison has made grants to Northern Ireland musicians that lock down has hurt much more than it has hurt him, so he's not all blather, and that's admirable. But now it's time to see if he could get back to what he does well. Make music we can all enjoy, with lyrics about idyllic nature, love, and the blues, without all the ranting and raving against Robin Swann.
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