A Sense of Wonder

Inarticulate Speech of the Heart	Beautiful Vision This 1982 sleeper captures Van Morrison banking the fires of his more urgent, R&B-flavored '70s classics to sculpt a quieter, contemplative synthesis laced with Celtic flourishes, minimalist synthesizers, and the skeletal horn charts of saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and trumpeter-syn...	No Guru, No Method, No Teacher Longtime Van Morrison fans may prefer the Belfast bard's tougher, emphatically R&B-driven work, yet it's his lusher, mid-'80s output that helped him consolidate the scrappy gains made in the prior decades. The once-heightened polarity between the earthy and the ethereal seemed mu...	Common One Easily among Van Morrison's least successful albums, Common One is probably also his least understood. Arriving in the wake of the far more concise, focused Into the Music, this 1980 project found Morrison making a sweeping left turn toward the open-ended, jazz-fueled vamps and s...	Enlightenment Its title seems squarely in the pilgrim's camp, where much of Van Morrison's '80s music dwells, but 1990's Enlightenment offsets new glimpses of Morrison's oft-sought Avalon ("Avalon of the Heart") with darker confessions of human frailty and challenged faith. The opening "Real R...
Keep It Simple Those familiar with Van Morrison's ever mercurial muse could hardly have been surprised when he turned up on the artistically centered, avant-country label Lost Highway to pay tribute to a era-spanning slate of country icons on the Nashville imprint's `06 collection, Pay the Dev...	The Philosopher's Stone For an artist's most devout fans, a peek at the sketches can speak volumes about the final canvas, and that's the merit behind this two-CD compilation of shelf tracks and alternate takes from Van Morrison's 1971-1988 studio output. The Philosopher's Stone favors his core instinct...	Into the Music This 1979 release marked both a restoration of Van Morrison's full arsenal of powers as writer, performer, and bandleader after five years of uneven albums and a turning point toward the more interior works that would dominate his next decade. Gone is the lack of direction behind...	The Healing Game Cranky, sly, dour, ecstatic, Van Morrison treads his own stubborn pilgrimage through blues, jazz, R&B, Celtic rays, and their ineffable junction in his own music. This 1997 album distills the renewed focus on blues and jazz sources that shaped much of his '90s work, noteworthy fo...	The Best of Van Morrison Volume 3 Navigating Van Morrison's extensive catalog since 1993 is a formidable task even diehard fans might not want to attempt. The Irish icon has flirted with blues, jazz, country, pop, Celtic, and his own style of indescribable into-the-mystic spiritually-oriented poetic folk on his n...

Still Holding Up
It's hard sometimes to admit that there are bad Van Morrison albums, and we all know that he's released a bunch of them. Fortunately, this isn't one of them. The band is tight, Van is in a zone. Go ahead buy it; make my zen.

Fresh Fall air (and airs) in Eire
Autmunal images (seared orange, pale yellow and green leaves), meditative paens to nature's harmonious beauty and God's love, musical notations on being a solitary human being in a large and sometimes difficult world, a rootsy and jaunty celtic instrumental. "Pastoral and low key" would be some of the surest adjectives to describe "A Sense of Wonder;" "soulfully soothing and occassionally enthralling" would be my humble critique. There is a wonderful and rare spiritual cohesiveness and harmony to this delightful, deceptively modest album that is rare to find or even stumble upon in any period. You can smell the leaves on the air. A Sense of Wonder qualifies

SUBDUED CHARM
I do not think Sense Of Wonder is generally considered to be one of Morrison's essential albums, although it doesn't lack charm. Tore Down a la Rimbaud and Ancient Of Days are mid tempo ballads, the latter with intricate instrumental patterns, whilst Evening Meditation is a slow devotional number with wordless humming, a beautiful mood piece. The Master's Eyes is another slow hymn with particularly enchanting jangling guitar infusions. The title track is a spacey ballad boosted by impressive female vocals and some spoken vocals by Van towards the end. The pace picks up for Boffyflow & Spike, an energetic Celtic jig instrumental. The song If You Only Knew has a jerky, jazzy rhythm and is probably the closest track here to Van's unique style of R&B. It has lovely organ and sax twirls. Let The Slave is a meandering philosophical piece incorporating The Price Of Experience, a piece of spoken poetry whilst A New Kind Of Man is a melodic outing. Although Sense Of Wonder is by no means one of Morrison's best albums, I find much to enjoy here. By his high standards it probably deserves three stars but for the listening pleasure it gives me, I give it four stars.

One of His Best!
This is easily one of the best albums that this brilliant musician has ever made. I highly recommed it. It happens to be the album that got me hooked on Van and made me realize just how brilliant, how sublime, how deep, he is. Prior to hearing this album, I only knew Van from his radio hits; I enjoyed them greatly, but (let's face it) they were far lighter, bouncier, and without the "spiritual" depth than you will encounter on this great album. I recommend turning down the lights, sipping some wine, adjusting the headphones just right, and then listening to each song three times before proceeding to the next one. Enjoy!

Aptly named
While not quite achieving the same pinnacle as (say) "No Guru ...", this is still a very fine album. Van is at the peak of his form vocally, and, as usual, his collaborators are superb musicians. The title tune is lovely, and "What Would I Do Without You" is heartfelt without being sentimental. And the version of "Boffyflow and Spike" on this album has a jazzy "flow" that's missing from the livelier (but still delightful) traditional-instruments version he does with the Chieftains on "Irish Heartbeat." I found "Let The Slave" rather weak, not because of the material or the melody, but because Morrison's diction isn't quite up to it at times. His ventures into mysticism (e.g., "The Master's Eyes") are well done but tend to be repetitious. And what's with that Zorro suit he wears on the cover? But, overall, I like the album a lot.