Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

One of my favorite cartoons of all time was in SPIN Magazine during the mid-1980s, which, as it happened, was a rather thin time for Van Morrison creatively. The cartoon showed a wizened old hippie with heavy-lidded eyes nodding off in a wheelchair with a nurse leaning over him; the caption stated, “Okay Jim (or some other name), it’s time for your Van Morrison!” Those of us who have followed Morrison through times good and bad, through thick and thin, are always eventually rewarded, this time with Keep it Simple.

Keep it Simple takes off from its title, setting up eleven blues and jazz tinged Morrison compositions that are each instantly familiar but faintly exotic. Morrison’s throaty vocals are low key but wisely stationed at the front of the mix, buoyed by a guitar/bass/drum combo and, on several tracks, augmented by, among others, John Allair on organ and a vocal trio. Allair, by the way, is a standout on Keep it Simple, bringing to mind Morrison’s collaborations with Georgie Fame of some years ago.

It’s hard to find a particular standout here, as just about every track is strong in some way. It is also a difficult CD to classify: while a great number of the songs are tinged in blues and gospel, there are country flourishes (provided primarily with steel guitar) and some tasteful jazz piano that keep the disc from settling into a comfortable niche. Morrison is in fine vocal form throughout Keep it Simple, but Lover Come Back recalls the Morrison vocals, if not quite the music, of the early 1970s. What makes this all the more unusual is that Lover Come Back is --- dare I say it? --- Celtic cocktail jazz with a steel guitar. Well, maybe not, but there are elements of folk, jazz, blues, and yeah, country that move together in tandem without clashing, not only on Lover Come Back but also on Song Of Hope and No Thing. There is a beautiful, understated organ and guitar call and response on End of the Land that all by itself makes you want to listen to it over and over. Just about every track is a slow to mid-tempo number, Soul perhaps being the sole (heh heh) exception, with Morrison taking a tasty sax turn on the track, trading off solos with guitarist Mick Green.

Keep it Simple is an outstanding accomplishment; it is certainly Morrison’s strongest, most consistent work in years, and arguably stands shoulder to shoulder with his best work. Considering that he is well into his fifth decade of making music, he sounds suspiciously like a guy who is, however improbably, getting warmed up, even poking some fun at himself on Behind The Ritual, Keep it Simple’s closing track. Highly recommended.