Elevator music for the culturally deaf, Van Morrison strikes again with I’m Movin’ On. As empty a sentiment as the rest of his releases from this decade, the Moving on Skiffle single achieves nothing. The Box Tops, Hank Snow, Willie Nelson and now the man who believes skiffle is his salvation. Stick I’m Movin’ On at the jagged cross-cut sections of a mid-90s comedy hoping to mark a scene transition and it would feel right at home. What, exactly, is Morrison moving on from? He moved on from quality releases some time ago and this drubbing of Snow’s original is as empty as it gets. Objectively terrible from every state, from the mix to the interjections of supporting vocalists to the sudden saxophone whines that fail to provide much movement.
For a track hoping to move on, Morrison is sure spending his time littering the future with the past. He rifles through a collection of classics and comes out the other end with flatlining covers that hope to capture a big band feel without the presence needed. Bruce Springsteen developed that well on his album Only the Strong Survive. That they do. The Boss was right. Morrison is not one of the strong. His voice still is, but his context and reason for covers of classics is not. If anything, that is the damnable part of I’m Movin’ On. Does he move on the sound of the genre he clearly loves? Does he inflict his thought or feeling onto this music, moving it on for the next generation of listeners or those returning fans? No, he does nothing with it. Standards reproduced with no heart or soul behind them
Music for the sake of it, and when so many of those legendary artists heading into their twilight years hope to cover the tracks that made them, it is depressing to see how poor Morrison engages with it. The Boss managed it. Bob Dylan does it time and time again. The key is character and charm. Morrison has left that all behind. He’s moving on from it. Worried Man Blues was a woeful interpretation and Streamline Train derailed itself almost immediately. Morrison hopes this piece will have people cruising down freeways in that grand Americana way, but the likelihood for I’m Movin’ On relates more to nursing home discos than anywhere else.
That is not to say Morrison is an artist for the elderly, of course not. But he makes no mistake or claims to be anything better than a covers artist who has fallen far from where he should be. Astral Weeks is a long way off now. Borderline criminal it is to have a voice that strong in the twilight years of their career and to use it for what amounts to lifeless covers, that is where Morrison finds himself. Moving on Skiffle and the singles associated with it are deadset on moving on. Where? Why? How? These are the questions Morrison has a feeble shrug of the shoulders for as he rattles out hit after hit, turning those classic intonations of Snow into a dusty, dull piece that does nothing to move anything creative on.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Wow. Someone got out the wrong side of bed when they wrote this review. Lifeless he calls it! Listen again, from hearing the 3 tracks that have been pre-released, I can safely say these songs positively zing! Am looking forward to hearing the full album. And this from someone who is not a fan or listened to any Van Morrison music for over 40 years.