10 months ago
VAN MORRISON: Accentuate The Positive (Exile)
Verdict: Van The Man perks up
Rating: 
THE STRUTS: Pretty Vicious (Big Machine)
Verdict: Swaggering Brit-rock
Rating: 
Whatever your return connected his staunch anti-lockdown views, nan 2 double albums Van Morrison made successful quarantine were reliable going. Dominated by rants astir societal distancing, nan media and euphony business, 2021's sprawling Latest Record Project: Volume 1 and past year's What's It Gonna Take? saw nan Belfast Cowboy surviving up to his estimation arsenic nan grumpiest man successful pop.
But moreover a performer arsenic outspoken arsenic Morrison, who denounced nan 'pseudo-science' that he believed surrounded Covid, has to lighten up sometimes, and he showed his much agreeable broadside successful March erstwhile he released Moving On Skiffle, a homage to nan jazz and skiffle that took Britain by large wind successful nan 1950s.
He goes further connected Accentuate The Positive, a joyous double LP that features immoderate notable collaborations and sees him return to 2 much of his puerility loves: 1950s stone and rotation and 1960s pop.
Whatever your return connected his staunch anti-lockdown views, nan 2 double albums Van Morrison made successful quarantine were reliable going
He goes further connected Accentuate The Positive, a joyous double LP that features immoderate notable collaborations and sees him return to 2 much of his puerility loves: 1950s stone and rotation and 1960s pop
Covering hits made celebrated by nan Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, it takes Van, 78, backmost to his early days arsenic a soulful hit and blues singer, and it is (whisper it) positively cheerful.
It's a amended medium than Moving On Skiffle — connected nan spot of superior material. The stone and rotation era provides plentifulness of rich | pickings, and Morrison is simply a skilful interpreter.
He could astir apt singing these songs successful his slumber and still sound engaged, but nan enjoyment he gets from them is evident and contagious, and he interacts smoothly pinch his set and a trio of female singers.
He tackles 2 Everly Brothers numbers, adding alto sax to When Will I Be Loved and transforming Problems into an upbeat ska workout. His type of Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill feels tepid, but he fares amended connected Bill Haley's Two Hound Dogs (a communicative of pooches named Rhythm and Blues) and Chuck Berry's Bye Bye Johnny.
Some celebrated friends thief out. The rockabilly deed Lonesome Train is simply a duet betwixt Morrison and Chris Farlowe. Guitarist Jeff Beck, who died successful January, supplies a fleet-fingered solo successful what was 1 of his last workplace sessions.
Blues musician Taj Mahal besides appears, duetting connected Little Richard's Lucille and 1950s modular Shake, Rattle And Roll. 'Taj, singing it pinch me,' urges Van, emphasising nan album's spontaneous feel.
He besides unearths immoderate little celebrated gems, including Johnny Restivo's The Shape I'm In, and expands nan palette to see state tunes and Broadway standards.
There's a reference to his Irish upbringing connected Red Sails In The Sunset, inspired by nan harbour edifice of Portstewart.
The title track, an Oscar-nominated tune from nan aureate property of swing, adds further nuance. Once sung by Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, it hardly counts arsenic a stone and rotation track, but it sets nan reside for this latest return.
Covering hits made celebrated by nan Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, it takes Van, 78, backmost to his early days arsenic a soulful hit and blues singer, and it is (whisper it) positively cheerful
'What did they do, erstwhile everything conscionable looked dark?,' asks Van. They accentuated nan affirmative — conscionable arsenic he does here.
In penning songs successful thrall to nan Stones, nan Faces and Britpop-era Blur, The Struts aren't nan astir original set connected nan block.
But nan Derby quartet, who paid their dues connected nan unrecorded circuit, play pinch a tone that's difficult to resist. Dave Grohl, of nan Foo Fighters, says they are nan champion opening enactment he's ever played pinch — and their 4th medium strives to seizure nan power of their gigs.
Pretty Vicious frames nan group perfectly. Singer Luke Spiller, who moved from Bristol to Derby aft gathering guitarist Adam Slack, is simply a showy frontman who delivers nan band's tuneful hooks pinch singalong zest, his lyrics ranging from nan heartfelt to nan self-deprecating.
On Too Good At Raising Hell, he voices his disillusionment astatine stone and rotation excess ('I'm still saturated to death'), while Hands On Me is simply a powerfulness ballad arsenic bombastic arsenic thing by The Darkness.
'The only measurement I cognize really agelong that you've been gone is really nan mould connected each nan dishes seems to grow,' he grumbles. Who says romance is dead.
Amid immoderate good, if derivative, songs, location are 2 stand-outs. Rockstar nods to Bat Out Of Hell composer Jim Steinman and nan short-lived woman group, Pandora's Box, that Steinman assembled successful 1989. Somebody Someday is simply a tender ballad astir taking spot from romanticist strife.
'She conscionable looked astatine maine pinch scorn,' sings Spiller. 'So I went home, and I vowed I'm going to beryllium personification someday.' He's good connected nan way.
- Van Morrison starts a circuit coming (Nov 3) astatine The Limelight, Belfast (vanmorrison.com).
