Magic Time

Exile Music Recordings / Polydor Records
(Released May 16, 2005)

Stranded (5:34)
Celtic New Year (6:10)
Keep Mediocrity At Bay (3:44)
Evening Train (2:48)
This Love of Mine (2:42)
I'm Confessin (4:29)
Just Like Greta (6:25)
Gypsy In My Soul (4:04)
Lonely And Blue (3:41)
The Lion This Time (4:56)
Magic Time (5:06)
They Sold Me Out (3:11)
Carry On Regardless (5:54)
Total time: (58:45)

Production information for the album is available here; or click on the track times above for production information on a specific track.

Notes:
Also available as a "strictly limited collector's edition box", and a limited edition vinyl. No details yet on what makes the box a "collector's edition" (apart from the limited-ness of it). The track "I'm Confessin" is not included on the Canadian CD release, nor on the vinyl release for reasons which are not clear.

Review by Scott Thomas:
Like 2002's Down the Road, Magic Time is a fine Van Morrison album not because it surveys hitherto unexplored realms, but because Morrison gains the upper hand over his bad habits; namely, narcissistic complaining and lazy writing. Van the Grump was hardly banished from these sessions, but he was apparently told to behave himself. "Keep Mediocrity at Bay" may ultimately be another self-satisfied exercise in "the music business is out to get me" grousing, but it offers sound advice and, if you happen to think that Van is being a bit too strident, note how Brian Connor's mischievous piano affectionately mocks the singer. "Carry on Regardless" may begin as a warning against the "music business scam," but it degenerates, thankfully, into a tribute to the "Carry On" series of British comedies. The song ends with a yodel and then a giggle both perpetrated by Mr. Morrison.

While it is a relief to encounter Morrison's insular yet endearing sense of humor again, the most impressive thing about Magic Time in his self-assured singing. Back on Top, Down the Road, and What's Wrong With This Picture? all demonstrated that Van's voice had come back handily from the weariness heard on 1997's The Healing Game. Having reclaimed his standing as one of the greatest living vocalists, here he has the peace of mind to just lay back. There is no vocal barn-storming like on his cover of "Georgia on my Mind" from Down the Road. The opening track, "Stranded," may be written as a lament about being stuck on one's "own little island," but the singing is resigned and almost contented. You get the sense that he won't be taking the trouble to light bonfires for passing ships to see. The doo-wop background vocals and Brian Connor's beautiful piano figures that echo Van's vocal lines make it seem like Gilligan and the castaways had the wrong idea: being stranded is isn't such a bad thing after all. Thus, the song's sentiment resembles that of "Cul De Sac" from Veedon Fleece in which the reward for giving up is beauty for the senses.

Morrison's confident singing and a finely-honed melody make "Celtic New Year" a classic, a song and performance that can stand with his very greatest recordings, certainly, no mean achievement. The singer describes the songs he would like to be singing and the places he would like to be visiting with his departed lover. "I made it very clear," he claims and so he has. The relatively stark recording enhances the singer's direct delivery though Foggy Lyttle's charming fills on electric guitar, Connor's piano, and, near the end, Paddy Maloney's whistle assist him in saying how much he wants her back.

After these two songs and "Keep Mediocrity at Bay," we hit a cache of covers. Actually, "Evening Train," which sounds like something Morrison learned off of an old blues record, is an original. Only the pastoral imagery in the last stanza gives away the true authorship. Lyttle torches the song from above while bassist David Hayes burns (way) down below. It sounds like a Them reunion. The next two songs, "This Love of Mine" and "I'm Confession'," are truly covers and both show Morrison's singing at its most lighthearted. (The same can be said of "Lonely and Blue" with its dead-on Armstrong impersonation.)

Near the end of Magic Time, we encounter a few more first-rate original songs. While Morrison's tendency to reuse symbols may seem to some a symptom of intellectual laziness, it actually serves to setup resonances throughout his back catalog. In "Listen to the Lion" from St. Dominic's Preview, the lion symbolized a part of the singer, almost hidden, that was fearless. Here the singer is looking at a painting of a caged lion ("He is trying to break out of the frame"). While he certainly sees himself in the captured, yet dignified beast, the lion displays empathy for the singer: "he knows something is bothering me." There is something undeniably lonely about the singer who looks for and finds empathy in a painting of a wild animal. The sound, with Morrison and Michael Fields meshing their acoustic guitars with Fiachra Trench's string arrangement, is baroque.

The title track may seem like yet another Van Morrison song where he pines for dashed adolescence, but it is actually about a man and woman who still love each other after a long time, are happy in that love, but are trying to bring back the magic feeling from when they were first lovers. Here Morrison supplements a small, but admirable collection of rock-era songs that view love from the perspective of middle-age. Earlier entrants include Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Shadows."

Liner notes by Solly Lipsitz:
As time continues to distance us from historical sources, many contemporary musical definitions are prone to be accepted on trust.

Fictions become facts and the myths created too often obscure basic truths. Standard European music suffers little in this regard by virtue of it being written down, even though capable of some personal interpretation, but a purely improvised form of vocal expression such as the blues can only be given a true imprimatur when inspired by those who gave birth to the form and and developed it within a valid social and historical context.

Van Morrison has been among the strongest upholders of that tradition for decades and this latest compilation, Magic Time, confirms his unshakeable adherance to long held principle.

But that does not imply rigid orthodoxy - the present collection pays proper deference to some fellow composers, although mainly embracing original material carrying Morrison's own hallmark - an abrasiveness that so often hides gentler thoughts and ideas - qualities so successful in his transcending temporary tastes over the years.

The personal message, the cornerstone of the blues, continues to echo much of the lyric content: "Keep Mediocrity At Bay", "Just Like Greta" and "Carry On Regardless" all quasi-autobiographical.

The constant struggle against mediocrity has always been part of the Morrison philosophy; "Just Like Greta", a plea for privacy at a time when celebrity so often carries with it the burden of excessive intrusion, while "Carry On Regardless" is not a snub to goodwill, but arguably the only way for the performer to sustain artistic satisfaction.

An ever grateful nod to his native soil is, in this instance, provided by "Celtic New Year" with its unusual, but inspiring accompaniment lending authority to an impressive theme, cleverly balanced with the pulsating urgency that is evoked through "Evening Train".

The standard "Lonely and Blue" is given the affectionate treatment by one whose attachment to ther jazz association is evident, but we return inevitably to the personal with two originals "The Lion This Time" and "They Sold Me Out", strongly metaphorical in context and as always with Van, words and music in fine balance.

Even with such an eclectic choice of material, the backing groups are chosen with essential musical taste. There is, however, one musician to whom special reference should be made - guitarist 'Foggy' Lyttle, a respected colleague and fine performer who brought a unique flavour to many of these tracks, passed away within weeks of completion of the recording. This, then, is surely a worthy tribute to his memory.

Perversely I leave the little tune "Magic Time" to the end. In some ways it is set in a defferent musical mode from the other songs but then it is so lyrically Morrison, recollecting earlier days nostalgically yet without embarassment. This recording is Van in magician's clothes still casting a spell.

One of Van's dad's favourite Belfast record shops was Atlantic Records on the High Street, managed by Solly Lipsitz, one of several Jewish shopkeepers specializing in rare records.

From a press release:
'You can call it nostalgia, I don't mind, standing on that windswept hillside, listening to the church bells chime in that magic time.'

Magic Time is the new album from Van Morrison set for release in May 2005. Produced by Van Morrison Magic Time is released on his own Exile Music Recordings record label through Polydor Records in the UK and Geffen for North America. The album contains thirteen songs - ten original Van Morrison compositions and three classic interpretations of the jazz standards, "I'm Confessin", "This Love Of Mine" and "Lonely And Blue".

Magic Time is the first release from Van Morrison since What's Wrong With This Picture? in 2003 and marks the 40th anniversary of his first hits with his then band Them.

With songs such as "Stranded", the title track "Magic Time", "Celtic New Year" and "Gypsy In My Soul" Van Morrison has created some of his most powerful songs to date, with every emotion seemingly having its place within the fabric of what many will view as one of his most important albums of the past twenty years.

Part of the van-the-man.info unofficial website