The City - Vangelis

Track list:

1. Dawn
2. Morning Papers
3. Nerve Centre
4. Side Streets
5. Good to See You
6. Twilight
7. Red Lights
8. Procession

Running time: 43 minutes
Released: 1990

I remember my dad having this, and hearing it a fair bit whilst in my early teens. I remember this being more immediately accessible than some Vangelis, I remember it including sounds of people going about busy lives in a city. Very much in theme. I do not remember many specifics, and it will be interesting to see how it has aged.

This album is a collection of shorter pieces than I instinctively associate with Vangelis, so I expect it will fly by. Dawn opens in a way I find incredibly reminiscent of Blade Runner (still almost certain to be my most inter-linked post), which is certainly not a bad thing. All soft synthetics it is a gentle beginning, though I would personally suggest that the sounds are more evocative of sundown than sunup.  It ends with footsteps, walking us into the next track with it's odd voice over, busy sounds in the background including emergency sirens, and then a chime and breathy pipe tune that feels more Amazon jungle than Amazon corporate headquarters.

So far the overall effect of the pieces and the theme are at odds rather than in concert, despite the presence of these other sounds. For all that, it is quintessentially Vangelis; relaxing and familiar.

As I type that we tick over and Nerve Centre starts up with exaggerated 80s sounds. I think of  latter-day Pink Floyd as a reference (A Momentary Lapse of Reason era). I also think of Beverley Hills Cop and the fact that this could easily be overlaid on cheesy montage / scene setting sequences in that style of film. Dated. Very, very dated. In some ways it feels as though it would have been dated even before it released. It does, however, for the first time reflect a busier theme, and for all the cheese I don't find it forcing me away; a knowing wry look instead. Opening a track with a motorcycle engine, before settling into a tune structure that evokes 1492 quite strongly is interesting. Obviously this album came first, but I find the similarities between this - ostensibly an urban theme - and that soundtrack for a historical ocean and jungle epic to be surprising. the Blade Runner reference makes sense in context, over-built urban visuals and sounds you would expect to go together, but the flash-forward to 1492 is more incongruous.

For all that the heavy synth sound dates badly, for all that it is hard not to hear the cheese when applying a more modern ear, I still find these tunes very comforting. I don't know if that reflects nostalgia or the craft of the artist. I suspect a little of both. There are musical themes running through here that are so familiar and reliable.

On Good to See You there is the conceit of hearing one half of a conversation, a distant, somewhat muffled female voice talking over a soft theme. It works well enough to break up the monotony of the lower register structural loops, but I find I preferred it when a sax line was used for the same purpose. We are then dropped into the territory of exoticism - a different language to the spoken vocal, and sounds that hint at Asia, a decade on from China. Vangelis is rarely a quick tempo composer, but Twilight is glacially paced. Its soft tones have a sort of swirling wind sound beneath them, faint but effective. This helps call back to another Vangelis album for me, Antarctica, though more because of my associations with the place / word than for any conscious picking up of re-use of musical themes.

My first real disconnect with the compositions comes with Red Lights, which... well, I am not sure what he was aiming at here. The combination of the title, the style, the female voices (no language I can recognise) just jar me out of things. Thankfully it is over quite quickly, and we hit the final number. More sense of where he was to end up on 1492 here. I don't really have much else to add as I find the tune rather nondescript... not because it is bad but little stands out as worthy of particular attention. It is long, giving the structure a long time to bed in, lots of opportunities to vary what happens over the top of that structure, and... lots of run to be a very typical Vangelis track.

It closes by harking back to the beginning - the footsteps and speech from the first two tracks are appended to the closing of the last, and the final sounds we hear are distant sirens muffled into a fade out. There is very little here that feels unique, little to make this album stand out from Vangelis' other works;I find myself OK with that, and I can only put that particular statement down to the nostalgia.

The Best of Van Morrison - Van Morrison

Track list:

1. Bright Side Of The Road
2. Gloria
3. Moondance
4. Baby Please Don't Go
5. Have I Told You Lately
6. Brown Eyed Girl
7. Sweet Thing
8. Warm Love
9. Wonderful Remark
10. Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)
11. Full Force Gale
12. And It Stoned Me
13. Here Comes The Night
14. Domino
15. Did Ye Get Healed
16. Wild Night
17. Cleaning Windows
18. Whenever God Shines His Light
19. Queen Of The Slipstream
20. Dweller On The Threshold

Running time: 76 minutes
Released: 1990

So when I mentioned Van Morrison on my Best of Friends listen, it probably sounded like I wasn't keen. In fact the two tracks he appears on are two that I kept from that disc, amidst cutting half of the tunes from my collection. There are plenty of ways to damn this guy with faint praise but whilst his style is perhaps a little samey from piece to piece he pulls off that laid back atmosphere so darn well. I like and respect that, even whilst I am not overly familiar with too many tacks in specific. A few of these - Gloria, Baby Please Don't Go and Here Comes the Night are credited as Them, so predate Morrison's split from that band.

My largest complaint going into this listen is becoming as repetitive as some of the formulas used by those I have listened to recently: the length. 76 minutes plus change for the write up is a lot of "switched on" mental time to find these days.

Bright Side of the Road lives up to its name, a bright and breezy track with a head-noddy impulsion it is exactly what would would expect and opens a nice easy listen, before we're dumped into Gloria. This song is obviously well known and classic - but I would never have known that it had anything to do with Van Morrison and I will probably forget the link within 10 minutes of finishing this entry. The style is so completely different from his solo material, much rockier, edgier, livelier. Bright Side... was just that, but it didn't have the energy and zest that Gloria brings. Its a shame it is quite so short.

Moondance is... odd. Morrison's voice here is obviously younger than I am used to - there is less of a growl to it and it loses a lot of desirable character for that. The song itself is jazzy/bluesy easy listening and I am not that enamoured, especially not of the flute or whatever light woodwind provides the whistling treble. It's all so cheesy and unnecessary for me. We are landed in blues-land again with a cover of Baby Please Don't Go which has a really good roll to it and a dirty grungy element to the sound quality which adds to rather than detracts from the qualities of the song; this one I like a lot.

The tempo and mood change completely as that song closes and we enter the realm that I most associate with Van Morrison, easy listening ballads delivered with a distinctive and mature voice. I could take or leave the musical accompaniment, but the vocal characteristics that define Have I Told You Lately are the reason that I have this best of. I have never been inclined to go out and acquire the individual records Morrison has made over his career, but I really fell for his delivery when I heard Philospher's Stone on the Wonder Boys soundtrack. I had been aware of him before that, but never exposed to a song in a way as to really pick up on his ability.

It is safe to say I like distinctive voices. I prefer when people sing in their own voice rather than a put on generic "Americanised" accent which seemed to happen a lot when I was younger (and perhaps still does to a degree in music that gets a lot of mainstream radio play; I wouldn't know). I also have a fondness for gravelly voiced individuals. Van Morrison ticks both of these boxes so I am prepared to overlook some of the compositions which are functional rather than interesting in their own right most of the time. Case in point - Sweet Thing has a constant thrum going and very little variance throughout, it functions purely as a base over which the vocal can sit. Actually in this instance I think the volume is a little too loud on the main hooks and it manages to dull the song.

Oh now that does not work for me at all. Warm Love sounds like Morrison is singing with a throat infection - not the fact its scratchier, but the opening verses sound like a strangle. Its a strained edge that again takes away from the natural characteristics of his voice that appeal to me. Thankfully the strain disappears in the chorus but the damage is done and even the fact the backing picks up a little more interest as the song goes on cannot save my impression of the track.

Wonderful Remark starts, well, unremarkably, but there is an injection of interest after about 70 seconds or so along with the chorus, the horn section just lifting a track which was flat to that point. There is a lot to like about the chorus, which is just as well really because there is not much else of interest about the song. At least the most interesting thing about the song is part of the song, unlike with Jackie Wilson Said, where the most interesting thing about it is the classic Top of the Pops blunder that involved putting up a picture of darts player Jocky Wilson when a cover of this tune was performed by Dexy's Midnight Runners. The song passes me by whilst I confirm that it was the cover and not Morrison himself performing beneath the wrong image.

Gale is not a word you often expect to find in song titles, it doesn't much conjure an image conducive to musical accompaniment. This song works based again on the interest supplied by the horns. I am starting to see a pattern here with the repetitive nature of the compositions though. Each song is different - I have no problem with overall lack of differentiation here - but within each track there is precious little variation, and over-reliance on patterns played over and over.  Thankfully when our artist is on form you don't notice it so much because the essential nature of his vocal grasps your full attention, but on the weaker tracks or where there is a few seconds with no lyric it niggles at my appreciation.

The final Them track is less interesting that the prior two. It has the same jangly guitar and brighter, quicker nature in places, but it lacks something intangible needed to elevate it. Frankly I don't think I will listen to Here Comes the Night again, and I am OK with that. By immediate contrast Domino is more brass-based and when the horns blare up it is close to the best thing on this playlist.

Pure cheese! Did Ye Get Healed is so muzak it hurts. Not just the floaty easy listening style tune, but with the backing vocals of shrillness invoked it smacks of elevator or bad telephone hold music. That gets even worse with the sax solo on 2 minutes or so. I just cannot take this song at all seriously, and it has to go. The last quarter of the disc begins better - a more vital hook, a slightly muted sound and vocal forced out with slightly clipped pace, the sound builds and expands. This is genuinely enjoyable for more than just Van Morrison's central performance. A very odd decision on the 3 minute mark though - introducing some new horrible sound to what had to that point been great. It means the lead out of the track is almost a write-off, even though the imposition doesn't last long.

I can't see the title Cleaning Windows without thinking of George Formby, this in turn means that I cannot take the song seriously. Which is a shame because for all that the subject matter is dreary, the hook and character of the chorus is really catchy - not something I would chose to listen to often, but a nice change up in a shuffle or good background music. Now that is a hook I wouldn't have placed here. The opening refrain of Whenever God Shines His Light is immediately familiar but never in a million years could I have paired it with its artist or the song that it opens. It is a comfy little loop though and essential enough that it is easy to forgive the cheesier elements added as the tune continues. That said, the song should stop more than a minute before it does because the meat of it is over, and the lead out is several repetitions too long.

There is a much more melodic hook in Queen of the Slipstream and it is nice to hear the primary structural element in the upper register for a change, and for it to drop out and then reappear later. This strikes me as a more crafted composition than many of the tracks preceding it... right up until the halfway mark where there is just too much going on at once for this sort of gently plodding song (and I mean that in an endearing kind of way). The latter half then again just lasts too long again, making the end a blessing.

The final track, Dweller on the Threshold is a familiar one, bits and pieces of which are really nice (I love the soft trumpets), some of which is really dull (the beat) but which overall sums up the overall thrust of Van Morrison's music quite nicely. Over-reliant on a stunning vocal to create most of the interest, prone to lapsing into repetitive blandness in the rhythm section and liable to include little bits of joy amongst the brass. A light cull is all this receives then, 5 tracks binned, thrice that retained. I may trim back further in future as I am already losing the definition for some of those songs I did not call out by name above; I wonder how damning that is?