Avalon Sunset
| Van Morrison
Avalon Sunset
Avalon Sunset is the nineteenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in 1989 by Mercury Records to both commercial and critical success.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Ultimate Classic Rock
2015. . . . Sunset saw Morrison distilling his influences more clearly and consistently than he'd seemed able or willing during recent releases -- not only during radio-friendly numbers like the hits "Whenever God Shines His Light" and "Have I Told You Lately," but overall. Even at its least melodic (the spoken-word piece "Coney Island") and most nostalgic ("Orangefield"), the album boasted a sense of vitality that had occasionally gone missing over the years.
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All Music
Van Morrison scored one of his biggest commercial successes with Avalon Sunset, a record highlighted by the gorgeous "Have I Told You Lately," one of his most heartfelt love songs and a major radio hit which helped introduce his music to a new generation of listeners.
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People
1989. Avalon Sunset . . . takes the Irishman’s spiritual yearning to new heights, but in a musical setting that is surprisingly sweet, often lush and approachable. Morrison’s slurry but robust voice is in top form.
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Peace Theology
This was the first record in a kind of trilogy of kind of gospel music that Morrison released between 1989 and 1991 (the other two being “Enlightenment” and “Hymns to the Silence”). It marked what now may be seen as his last great peak of outstanding music (though certainly since then he has produced many more fine records).
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Alphoristic Album Reviews
Avalon Sunset, Van Morrison’s 19th studio album, was a commercial success, and his fastest album to reach gold status in the UK. But while it attracted more attention than usual, it feels like Morrison is treading a well worn path by this point, and it’s difficult to get excited about most of its tracks.
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Music Arcades
2011. Apparently one of Van's most successful albums — Wikipedia says it was his fastest selling album in the UK — and I think it's one of his dreariest — especially as it came after the high points of Poetic Champions Compose and Irish Heartbeat.
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Robert Christgau
Cliff Richard's support on his liveliest tune since "Cleaning Windows" suggests that Christ the Redeemer is lending a hand, but on the first side Van prefers to find the divine in the blessed present--folk lyric, poem about birdwatching, song called "I'd Like To Write Another Song." Side two comes out more today-is-the-first-day-of-the-rest-of-Van's-life--that is, his own genre exercise. And for a side he gets away with it. A-
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All About Jazz
2008. The commercial success of this album was out of proportion to its erratic superficial quality, but Morrison might have cast the whole album in a different light had he included this achingly slow version of "When the Saints (Go Marching In)."
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Spill Magazine
Meanwhile, Avalon Sunset heralded a commercial rebirth of sorts in 1989. While “Whenever God Shines His Light,” a duet with Cliff Richard, became Morrison’s first U.K. Top 20 hit in over two decades, the gorgeous “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” emerged as something of a contemporary standard, . . . .
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The Great Albums
2018. The disc – unusually for a Morrison album from the ‘70s or ‘80s – also includes a full-blown duet in the form here of an inspired collaboration with British pop legend Cliff Richard on “Whenever God Shines His Light” that opens the album on a jubilant and playful note. This is as good an album as Van ever made after leaving Warner Brothers.
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