Keep It Simple
| Van Morrison
Keep It Simple
Keep It Simple is the thirty-third solo studio album recorded by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison. It was released on 17 March 2008 (see 2008 in music) by Exile Productions Ltd./Polydor in the UK and on the Lost Highway Records label on 1 April 2008, in the U.S.. His previous studio album Pay the Devil was also released on the Lost Highway label, in March 2006. The album debuted at No. 10 on the US, UK and Canada charts and No. 7 on European Top 100 Albums. This album achieved Morrison's highest ranking in US charts.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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BBC Music
But on the whole this is a lovely welcome back to a man who's been increasingly offhand in his output of late. It may look simple, but only a master like Van could pull this off.
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Rolling Stone
2008. . . . the arrangements are elegantly spare: subtle works of guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, occasional backup singers and, at the center of it all, Morrison’s incomparable voice, as expressive as ever.
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All Music
. . . the lyrics, the songs even, don't matter as much as the overall sound on Keep It Simple, which is as pure a groove album as he's ever made. There are no surprises, but when you do something this well, there doesn't need to be.
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The Guardian - The Observer Music
2008. On this relaxed and cohesive set, Van's band fall into simple and graceful grooves and play like a proper group, not hired hands.
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Entertainment
2008. The title track shows that time has little withered Van Morrison’s voice. He could sing ”blah-blah-blah” and it would be pretty great. This is, in fact, what he does near the end of ”Behind the Ritual” — and it is pretty great.
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The Guardian
2008. It is, therefore, easy to understand why, 41 years into his solo career, he would want to Keep It Simple. But surely not this simple. Seven of the 11 tracks are tasteful, blues-by-numbers shuffles, with Hammond organ and backing vocals; they are elevated above the norm only by Morrison's velvety gargle. Lyrically, however, he appears to have hit a brick wall.
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Paste Magazine
2008. Van Morrison got the name right for his new album. He isn’t sailing into the mystic, or listening to the lion, or seeking hymns to the silence. He’s looking to spend three-to-six minutes throwing some rhymes around, nailing a couple of clichés, sprinkling them with organ-based blues and a few nods toward Hank Williams and calling it a day.
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Pop Matters
2008. As Morrison puts it right there in the title track, “We’ve got to keep it simple / and that’s that.” But of course it’s more than that. Even by the end of that song, he explains that keeping it simple is what we need to save our selves.
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Slant Magazine
2008. The result is another mixed bag of tunes from the man now fully embracing the second half of his famous nickname, “Belfast Cowboy.” The sparse, slightly country arrangements on Keep It Simple leave plenty of space for his reedy, Celtic-soul croaking, and fortunately for us, Morrison’s vocals continue to mystify even into his fourth decade as a performer.
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Uncut
2008. Claimed by the man himself to be composed of songs with “something to say” . . . proceeds in familiar style: world weariness with a dash of cynicism . . . , release from said snares . . . , w ith a wry glance over the shoulder to habits of yesteryear . . . .
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No Depression
2008. Van Morrison is the kind of superlative singer who justifies the cliche about the artist who “could sing the phone book.” The songs on Keep It Simple are certainly better than names and numbers, though none of them rank with Morrison’s best.
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30 Days Out
2008. As entertaining as it is, Keep It Simple elicits a few complaints. It seems Morrison loses interest pretty much midway through every song. You rarely get a new idea, a fresh lyric past the middle, just some repetition and vocal scatting.
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Concert Livewire
2008. Van Morrison has gotten what he always wanted. Popular acclaim. His latest CD, Keep It Simple broke the top 10 on Billboard's album charts - the first time he's scaled such heights. Too bad it stinks.
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American Songwriter
2008. Eschewing all the formal production elements of his last few albums, legendary vocalist Van Morrison digs into his past, strips away what is unnecessary and creates a collection of 11self-penned songs that speaks volumes to who he is, and what has musically shaped one of the most emotive catalogues on modern music.
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Austin Chronicle
2008. Morrison's first collection of originals in longer than most of us can remember relies on a characteristic combo of jazz phrasing and bluesy riffs that should please die-hards and maybe bring in a few latter-day converts.
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The Lonesome Road Review
2008. More than any other artist, Van Morrison can make feeling the full weight of your humanity bearable by taking the worst things about being human and turn them into music that is joyfully, cathartically ecstatic.
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The Music Box
2008. Morrison is far less curmudgeonly than has been his custom of late, and by taking an indirect and non-confrontational approach to relaying his message, he cleverly succeeds in making his point more effectively. . . . There’s nary a song, here, that doesn’t urge the members of Western society to slow down and take pleasure in the wonders that surround them. The path to enlightenment, it seems, often is obscured by the clutter that surrounds the same daily routines that also can lead to salvation.
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HUMO CD Reviews
2008. Anyone who buys a Van Morrison album knows what to expect: a cultured, well-executed mix of soul, folk and blues, finished with a gum gop and a hand of pure poetry. 'Keep It Simple' is more of the same.
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Shepherd Express
2008. It's a mostly meditative, groove-centered song workout, with sprawling verses but a tight, polished band that Van truly lets go to work.
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The Star
2008. It may not be a groundbreaking effort, but Keep It Simple is Morrison's first collection of all-original songs in a decade or more, and for that reason alone it deserves more than the dismissive toss-off it has been getting.
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