Born to Sing: No Plan B
| Van Morrison
Born to Sing: No Plan B
Born to Sing: No Plan B is the 34th studio album recorded by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 2 October 2012 on Blue Note Records. Produced by Van Morrison, it marked his first studio album of original songs since 2008's Keep It Simple.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Ultimate Classic Rock
2012. When Morrison keeps the songs below four minutes . . ., ‘Born to Sing: No Plan B’ comes close to being his tightest album in a decade. But the loose, feel-free-to-roam structure never quite settles into the songs-- grown-up versions of the jazzy-bluesy R&B Morrison has played since the ‘60s but has focused almost exclusively on for the past 20 or so years.
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Consequence of Sound
2012. Morrison’s latest, Born to Sing: No Plan B, is firmly planted in the jazz and blues that have influenced him for years (for better or worse), but his lyrics take on issues of greed, poverty, and materialism head-on. . . . while there are a few gems on Born to Sing, he’s riding his name through the album instead of having something to say.
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The Guardian
2012. His 35th solo studio album is his jazziest: the warm brass and catchy, sweet melodies recall 1970's Moondance. But the music's velvet glove delivers some of his hardest-hitting lyrics.
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All Music
2012. Born to Sing: No Plan B is more jazz-centric, but not at the expense of his trademark Celtic swing, blues, and soul. Morrison's singing is unfettered, relaxed, and unguarded. His charts are simultaneously more sophisticated and organic.
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All About Jazz
2012. A propitious return to Blue Note Records, Born to Sing: No Plan B is one of the most inspired and accessible albums of singer/songwriter Van Morrison's storied career.
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Slant Magazine
2012. Born to Sing: No Plan B is a recession album that’s four years too late.
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AV Club
2012. To Morrison’s credit, his new album, Born To Sing: No Plan B, contains no overt tirades against all those big-time operators who are always trying to sell him out. Instead he doubles down—by taking on capitalism as a whole.
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Paste Magazine
2012. But if we take away the album’s flaw-washing glow from the creator’s golden history, it doesn’t stand on its own. It’s a decent Van Morrison record, but a slightly creepy and almost missable piano soul record.
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Jazz Times
2013. Like any great singer, Morrison can overcome weak material and a weak band, but he can overcome them only so much. And this album finds him singing with the weakest band of his career.
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nzherald.con.nz
2012. Another worthwhile late-career high from Van. Just as well; at 67 he's a bit late for a plan
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Boston Globe
2012. This is among his most overtly jazz-tinged work, produced by Morrison and recorded in his native Belfast.
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Montreal Gazette
2012. His latest, recorded in his hometown of Belfast, falls somewhere short of greatness. Still, half a great Van Morrison album is still a half-hour of must-hear music.
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American Songwriter
2012. Van Morrison’s latest, Born To Sing: No Plan B, is a shock of an album. It’s no small feat that Morrison, 67, still surprises and confounds on his 34th studio album, and Born To Sing is deserving of several career superlatives: It’s both the most traditionally jazz leaning and the crankiest, most pissed-off record the singer’s ever released.
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Music OMH
2012. . . . Van Morrison has very little left to prove, but a lot more to say. Like Dylan, Born To Sing will probably be an acquired taste for some (the jazzy backing may put some off, as may Morrison’s tendency to incessantly repeat lines and start scatting every so often), but it’s yet another example of his sometimes erratic genius.
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Uncut
2012. A real return to form, though it can't match Van's best . . . .
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Baugh's Blog
2012. Within a couple of tracks I knew this was a really good one. There was Van singing like he meant it and the music – arrangements, production, and playing – sounded great.
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Audiophile Audition
2012. For his return to Blue Note Records after a several year hiatus, Van Morrison is back to his soulful mix of rhythm and blues, jazz supplemented by horns, with a bit of rock, blues, and Celtic swing. Never an artist easy to pin down, Van continues to satisfy with a mix of his curmudgeonly . . . lyrics about the money-hungry, greedy recording business, and his feeling of wanting to be left alone with the guarding of his privacy . . . balanced by a sweet sentimentality for the early days of Rock and Roll, the 1950s, with a healthy dose of spirituality . . . .
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Telegraph
2012. There’s something so wonderfully familiar about slipping into the honeyed horns, mellow barks and tastefully jazzy piano of Morrison’s 35th album that it takes a while to realise that the songs on Born to Sing: No Plan B go nowhere.
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Rolling Stone
2012. Greed and economic calamity are running themes in Morrison’s writing here. . . . He is one of pop’s great prickly contradictions: a public treasure obsessed with pure, private solace. But anyone born to sing was also born to share. Despite all of his discomfort and suspicion, Morrison isn’t done giving.
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