release date: Apr. 1977
format: cd (1997 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]
producer: Van Morrison & Mac Rebennack (Dr. John)
label: Polydor Records - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK
Track highlights: 1. "You Gotta Make It Through the World" - 3. "The Eternal Kansas City" - 4. "Joyous Sound" - 6. "Heavy Connection" (live)
[ full album ]
9th studio album by Van Morrison originally released on Warner Bros. and for the first time in many years an album with a co-producer, which may be a sign of Van's uncertainty concerning musical direction. Anyway, Mac Rebennack, or: Dr. John, who had also featured at The Band's The Last Waltz farewell concert with Morrison in '76. Stylistically, the title suggest what it basically is: an album revealing other influences and something else rather than what you had come to expect from Van the Man. It's like reasoning on his labour with the predecessor, Veedon Fleece - released nearly three years ago, an album that not many of the time really understood, and which have him debating how people have their own expectations. So, in order to make something different, with success, you have to prepare the listener not to expect what is connected with tradition.
The album presents vocal jazz and traditional rhythm & blues in a spiritual shape, which is something different from his previous albums. There's a rock roots sensation to all compositions that you could associate with that of The Band and Dr. John - effectively a strict American tradition.
The album failed as a strong return, and critics found it unfocused and unexciting.
Strong identifying songs may be absent on this album, but it has a warm feel and sincerity, and it's like his most jazz-oriented album to date. I don't find it among his best, but it's an album not to dismiss.
[ allmsuic.com 3 / 5, Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]
