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This music is so very good, though one might not realize it at first. It's truth at a vibrational level, like all good Irish music, blues, and. Van Morrison, providing me with some healing actualization and uplift. (All I'm drinkin' is a smoothie).
All this can be found and enjoyed in this work and the title song is a great reminder of how we should keep things. For long time Van Morrison fans, this work shows how much versatility he has as well as where his roots are. He has talked in interviews about his fathers record collection that included Delta Blues, Jazz and regional music of days gone by. Van Morrison, I love each and every track. Bravo.
Reading the other reviews I'm left thinking I just don't get it, i guess. If this was the first artist by an unknown van, would anybody be intrigued by it. It's very hard to continue at the top in any field for a long time, but all Van needs to do is put out fewer records - do like Jackson Browne does and release a cd say every 4 or 5 years. As it is every release has 1 or 2 great songs; save 'em up instead of continuing his album a year rate which leads to such mediocrity.
Though played by a full band, and one sometimes augumented by organ, sax or various other instruments, the songs on "Keep it Simple" nevertheless sound both lean and restrained, settled in a smoky, soulful groove.This is in no small part due to the excellent, uncluttered production.no wall of sound here, and I mean that as a compliment. But somehow it still amounts to more than what ought to be the sum of those familiar parts, as do almost all of Van Morrison's albums. Nobody else mines a groove like Van the Man does. "Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore" is an intelligent and charming spin on Duke Ellington's and Bob Russell's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", a slow, almost gospel-tinged slice of bluesy soul. It's not as immediately catchy as "Down the Road", as ground-breaking as "Moondance", or as multi-facetted and magnificent as "Tupelo Honey". And songs like "How Can a Poor Boy", "Soul", "End of the Land", and the jazzy "No Thing" all draw from that same seemingly bottomless well of melodic and mellow, but never harmless or inconsequential, soul, jazz and R&B from which Mr Morrison has been bringing up one bucketful of songs after another for nigh on seven decades.Fifty years into his career as a professional musician, George Ivan Morrison is indeed keeping it simple, and this, his thirty-third solo studio album ()., almost sounds like something he just casually tossed off. "Song of Home" is updated Irish folk, melodic and beautiful, all acoustic instruments except for the stylish but warm organ, expertly played by veteran John Allair. Nobody else seems to blend all those genres in just the right way.
The familiar (but utterly inimitable) blend of soul, blues, R&B, rock, folk, and country, the familiar voice, the familiar instrumentation, the familiar wry lyrics, no surprises one way or another. Almost every song is set at approximately the same lazy, shuffling tempo. And I doubt if any other middle-aged Irishmen sing with as much soul and character.This is the ultimate "grown up" feel-good album. But it's still vintage Van Morrison, a warm, organic, subtly swinging, utterly pleasant experience.
This is the first Van Morrison album where I enjoyed every song. The last three cuts really move my soul.
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