Enlightenment
| Van Morrison
Enlightenment
Enlightenment is the twentieth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in 1990 and reached #5 in the UK charts and "Real Real Gone" charted at #18 in Mainstream Rock Tracks.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
1990- Van Morrison doesn’t make easy-listening records. Oh, sure, you can sit back and let his smooth, buttery R&B vocals roll across the arrangements, but there’s too much else going on to let it stop there. Ever since he threw aside the mantle of pop singer more than twenty years ago to make Astral Weeks, Morrison has used the recording process as a means to explore his spiritual obsessions.
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All Music
Enlightenment, like Avalon Sunset, marks one of Morrison's best productions, if not albums. Its sound is warm, enveloping, and humid. If the songs seem to bleed together a bit, that's on purpose; it's meant to be taken as a whole. It's an overlooked gem.
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Entertainment
1990- Contrary to the New Age connotations of the title, the subject of Van Morrison’s latest album, Enlightenment — his 20th solo effort — is a heart-stirring look back at the advent of rock & roll. On it, Morrison picks the lock of memory with a stream-of- consciousness singing style, with his soulful voice, and with any other musical mnemonic button he can find to push.
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Los Angeles Times
1990- It takes Morrison's most intense singing in years, and a return to his bedrock of vintage soul and R&B, to rescue many of the songs here. The record is full of spontaneous interjections and exhortations, and the long fade-outs have an immediacy and life that's rare on mainstream records these days.
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Kamer Tunes Blog
2011- When Enlightenment (1990) was originally released, I thought it was a return to form. It sounded like his more recent albums, but the songs were better. Revisiting it again this past week, it’s not quite as good as I remember, possibly on par with its predecessor, Avalon Sunset.
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Alphoristic Album Reviews
Twenty solo albums into his career, Enlightement is surprisingly vital featuring respectable doses of energy and inspiration.
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Robert Christgau
Also: orchestras, the names of r&b singers, a weird recitative about the radio, and other tried-and-trues, all executed with faith, hope, and charity. Inspirational Verse: "In my soul, in my soul, in my soul."
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Frozen Notes
2013- WITH such an extensive back catalogue, Van Morrison’s Enlightenment album is perhaps not the obvious choice to be put under the spotlight. Being his twentieth studio LP, it nevertheless broke into the UK national album charts, peaking at number five. Jaunty opening track Real Real Gone was one of the singles released from the album and became a top twenty hit, peaking at number 18 on the Billboard chart. The album was re-mastered and re-issued in June 2008 and is well worth tracking down.
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