Consumer Guide Album

Van Morrison: Hymns to the Silence [Mercury, 1991]
The usual wealth of fertilizer spread over two shortish CDs, long on love songs and the aforementioned hymns--wish the rejected title Ordinary Life was more accurate. Maybe they renamed the thing so churls like me wouldn't ask why nobody 86'd a few hymns. Like all of his recent and no doubt future work, it's slower than necessary, even in an artist of Van's advanced years. And like so much of his recent and I expect future work, it's more affecting than you'd figure. True love, eh? The simple life, huh? The days before rock and roll, did you say? Sounds kind of good. B+