Van Morrison - Latest Record Project: Volume 1

by Nick Dent-Robinson

published: 5 / 7 / 2021

Van Morrison - Latest Record Project: Volume 1

Label: BMG
Format: CD Box

Competent but flawed and over-long triple album from Van Morrison

Review

This is Van Morrison's 42nd album, so no surprise he has run out of original names for his new release! There's certainly a lot to digest on ‘Latest Record Project: Volume 1’! Van Morrison has been one of rock music's most vocal opponents of the Covid lockdown, furious that he was prevented from touring. He has spent the last year completing this 28-track triple album which provides over two hours of competent if somewhat languid blues and jazz. Occasionally a little more editing might have been desirable but Van Morrison is in fine voice as he rails against politicians, the media, the music business and the modern IT era plus much else besides. Songs like ‘Why Are You On Facebook?’ are hardly in the same pop-poetry league as ‘Have I Told You Lately That I Love You’. Yet, there are some plus points in the new record. ‘Up County Down’ is an interesting homage to Van Morrison's Northern Irish roots whilst two tracks written with lyricist Don Black are remarkably good. Maybe Volume 2 when it appears (hopefully in a post-Covid era) will be rather more upbeat!

Track Listing:-

1 Latest Record Project
2 Where Have All the Rebels Gone?
3 Psychoanalysts' Ball
4 No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
5 Tried to Do the Right Thing
6 The Long Con
7 Thank God for the Blues
8 Big Lie
9 A Few Bars Early
10 It Hurts Me Too
11 Only a Song
12 Diabolic Pressure
13 Deadbeat Saturday Night
14 Blue Funk
15 Double Agent
16 Double Bind
17 Love Should Come with a Warning
18 Breaking the Spell
19 Up County Down
20 Duper's Delight
21 My Time After a While
22 He's Not the Kingpin
23 Mistaken Identity
24 Stop Bitching, Do Something
25 Western Man
26 They Own the Media
27 Why Are You on Facebook?
28 Jealousy