Customer Reviews

Sense of Wonder

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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!

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.

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.

Seldom is a CD titled so aptly: Van Morrison instills a true sense of wonder with the transcendant music and insightful lyrics he offers on this CD. His voice soars, the arrangements take flight, the disc progresses like a profoundly spiritual religious ceremony intended to baptize, confirm, and grant absolution to a weary soul.

I was introduced to the music of Van Morrison in the 80's and one of the first songs I heard was the Masters Eyes, what a masterpiece in song as you hear Van Morrisons passion as he sings this song, all your questions will be answered, when you look into the Masters (JESUS) eyes.

Well it's the mid 80's and the type of music Van Morrison specialized in wasn't exactly part of the popular conscience as it had been in the past. But then when was Van ever associated much with the term popular?Popularity was simply not a huge part of where he came from musically. After all that might be a good reason for why this album sounds like it was recorded only yesterday. This was made in a very fasion concious era and very little has changed since in a lot of ways so the fact that Van Morrison was able to maintain any sort of musical dignity from this point on,regardless of quality is nothing short of miraculous. Thematically he isn't doing anything all that fresh and new but the continually increasing and polished level of the recording quality benifits the material,which is also continually upbeat and happilly spiritual throughout. "Tore Down A La Rimbaud","A New Kind Of Man","The Master's Eyes" and "If You Only Knew" are the faster of the songs here along with and all of them have a highly spirited "celtic soul" sound to them. In these pastoral yet grooving romantic jams (romantic in the poetic sense mostly) there are strong indications that Van was paying a lot of attention to the production and vocal style of people such as Al Green in the later 70's and such likemind "sweet funk" type of styles for his music. The female backup choirs,jazzy guitars and sax solos all come into play on the equally potent slowers songs such as the title song,"Let The Slave","Antient Days" and "What Would I Do"-the former of the two featuring Van warbling consciencious stream of conscience poetry in between the sung versus. Somehow or another none of these numbers seem at all like relics of another era;just sounds like variations on one long theme Van has carried through his career. This is especially true with the two instrumental pieces he presents in "Evening Meditation" and "Boffyflow And Spike",the latter of which is the most distinctive and penetrating as it draws you into a celtic fusion style blending a traditional Irish style melody with a strong jazzy rhythmic and melodic flavor. It may say as much if not more about Van's general musical style than any of the vocal numbers he tends to be better known for. Often forgotton,ignored or underrated in the tradition of much of Van Morrison's 80's output this album actually emmerges as one of his stronger overall efforts and the strong variety of rhythm and lyricism are part of the reasons for this when it all gets done.

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.