What's Wrong with This Picture?
| Van Morrison
What's Wrong with This Picture?
What's Wrong with This Picture is the thirtieth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on 21 October 2003 by Blue Note Records.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
2003. Eclectic and ambitious without ever seeming forced, Morrison is relaxed throughout this entire set. There is no filler or slackness here, either. In fact, there is nothing wrong with this picture.
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All Music
This is the sound of an artist who is comfortable making a break with his past because it is not a break; he understands it as the next part of a continuum that goes deeper and wider than anyone else ever expected. This is the sound of self-assurance as it articulates itself with grace and aplomb.
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All About Jazz
2003. While not a jazz album per se, What’s Wrong with this Picture is Morrison’s most overtly jazz-influenced album to date. It features a host of new Morrison compositions and two outstanding covers . . . . It also features a host of wonderful instrumental performances from Van’s professional backing group.
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Jazz Times
2003. Morrison’s Blue Note debut, What’s Wrong With This Picture?, isn’t exclusively about the perils of fame. A vivid pastiche, both stylistically and thematically, it also provides the Irish troubadour (in terrific vocal shape, sounding fresh and fully revitalized) space to reflect on such disparate topics as romantic fulfillment . . ., and the evils of addiction . . . .
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Pop Matters
2003. The songs all follow standard blues progressions, and nothing in the way they are structured will surprise listeners. Of course, they are not supposed to; they are to soothe listeners with their reliable predictability, and provide the satisfaction of pattern perfected and completed. All the musicians are eminently professional, and their soloing exhibits their virtuosity through how efficient and economical it is.
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Elsewhere
2004. The man notorious for his graceless grumpiness is now on Blue Note, . . . . But where they bring something unique, on his asking-for-it entitled What's Wrong With This Picture? Van only brings weariness, the familiar and lyrical cliches to what sounds like the fag-end of his career.
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Enjoy the Music
. . . but Van the Man says this new one is "blues jazz," and he is sure blowing a sweet and mournful alto sax on a bunch of tunes. Witness his fresh take on "Saint James Infirmary," where he's getting back to where he once belonged.
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Steve Hoffman Music Forums
2003. Actually sounds like a much better executed version of his last album, Down the Road. Both albums eschew the big spiritual statements and focus on Van Morrison's roots music - old time jazz and blues and folk and soul. But this one feels just a little better written, a little more reinvigorated, a little fresher, less of a toss off . . . .
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Entertainment
2003. His Irish and British mates offer a hard-hitting mixture of rollicking piano, groovy organ, jangling guitars, and tart horn lines, but it’s Morrison’s voice — soulful as ever and particularly supple here — that makes even the price-of-fame laments believable.
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Uncut
2003. A new label but business as usual for George Ivan Morrison, erstwhile mystic and vocal giant, as he covers familiar territory with customary tenacity and still manages to unearth some fresh delights.
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RTE
2004. Leisurely and long, this is a Dad's record - but one that you shouldn't feel bad about swiping for a listen.
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Independent
2003. There's little discernible difference between Van Morrison's debut for jazz label Blue Note and his previous half-dozen or so albums, which have ploughed much the same blues-jazz furrow. The most shocking thing about it is his burst of laughter in the first verse of the title track, an uncharacteristic display of levity from music's most famous misery-guts.
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Slant Magazine
2008. . . . there plenty of instances where Morrison lands right on target, and his characteristic blend of European folk and American pop soothes like a warm Irish coffee. Riffing on and flipping lyrics and melodies from blues and jazz standards remains his M.O. . . .
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Scaruffi
What's Wrong With This picture is typical of the mature Van Morrison, an impeccable juxtaposition of soaring chamber orchestration . . . and soulful melody . . . . It is more about elegance than passion, and aging gracefully (as a vocalist and arranger).
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The Great Albums
It’s not quite Back on Top, but Morrison is nearly back to form here, and he’s even rocking out with more abandon than he has in decades – just check out the heated up-tempo cuts “Whinin’ Boy Moan” and the even more playful “Stop Drinkin” as perfect proof of this.
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