It would be very, very easy to go overboard when discussing Van Morrison’s new album, Remembering Now. The 79-year-old Northern Irishman’s latest release, his first album of original songs since the berserkly terrible anti-lockdown polemic What’s It Gonna Take? (2022) has been hailed as his best in decades. It’s not such an absurd claim – if we don’t count 2016’s from-the-archives live album ..It’s Too Late To Stop Now: Volumes II, III, IV & DVD, or his underrated country venture Pay the Devil (2006) – but that’s more a testament to just how awry Morrison’s output has gone.
Morrison, one of music’s true originals and a genuine great, has, in recent years, managed to remain as preternaturally prolific as he always was (Remembering Now is his 47th studio album), while becoming, at the same time, preternaturally crap. Even if we set aside his brief and scandalising detour into Covid contrarianism that yielded his lowest lows, his output for decades has been lacking: limp, atavistic cover albums, or similarly insipid original records. (As a live act, he’s a bit of a different story, never losing his capacity for sheer magnetic brilliance, albeit now in flashes that come and go like the weather.)
Into this context comes Remembering Now – a solidly enjoyable album sits as many leagues above Morrison’s recent slump as it does below his best work. The album opens with one of its best tracks – “Down to Joy”, an upbeat, soul-tinged number that was nominated for an Oscar in 2022, having appeared first on the soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh’s awards season stalking-horse Belfast. “If It Wasn’t For Ray”, an enjoyable tribute to the late Ray Charles, has the structure and feel of an early Morrison song, and, fittingly, allows the keys and organ to shine.
At 14 tracks, Remembering Now has a slight paunchiness to it – something that grates particularly during the drearier slow numbers, such as “The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours” and “Memories and Visions”. If it is missing the volcanic energy of his early work, that’s probably fair enough, given the man is now pushing 80. But there are times when this album seems as spiritually optimistic as any he’s ever put out. “Haven’t lost my sense of wonder,” he insists, in the title lyric of the album’s third song. For the first time in a long while, we’ve reason to believe him.
