Van Morrison – New Arrangements and Duets Review

You can play all the cool saxophone you like; New Arrangements and Duets is still a wasteful project. Nothing says the artistic tank is running on empty than three cover collections in two years. One of those, this package of Van Morrison classics and rarities, goes the route of U2 on Songs of Surrender. Vague revitalisations of works which all sound better on their flagship album, a few with additional instrumentation from fellow legends of other genres. Willie Nelson and Kurt Elling can be heard throughout this, the latter on opening duo Ain’t Gonna Moan No More and Broken Record. Ironic choices considering the complaints Morrison has put in, time and again, in recent years. It has distracted him from doing anything of artistic interest and so we are saddled with fifteen do-overs of songs already fine enough to last on without a turn into jazz fundamentals. 

Smooth as a few of these numbers may sound the very choice to redo songs without issue shows a lack of confidence in freshly written material. Instead, Morrison picks from the likes of The Prophet Speaks and Down the Road and gives his already heartfelt, if a little choppy sets of music, overdubs of studio shouting and often uninteresting jazz pieces. It takes some incredible skill to make Elling sound dull. But here we are, a series of songs which do not benefit from this blues-like playing because the instrumental sections sound strained and copied. Dull work, dishwater-like flavours of jazz swing of a generic variety. You would hear these tones in budget menu screens for mid-2000s movies, light cartoon shows made for kids hold better arrangements than a few of the songs featured on New Arrangements and Duets. Broken Record is not as smart as Morrison thinks it is. 

Even moments like Avalon of the Heart, where Morrison kicks it up an emotive gear, sound hollow. It is the very generic run of jazz instrumentals within, obviously influenced by surface-level listening and unmoved by the modern swing. Morrison, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, is dependent on the influences of his youth. But where the latter musicians are capable of turning those charmed songs of their youth into moments of immense and forthright charm, Morrison is stuck playing to a diminished crowd who dare not experience anything new. Morrison is keen to depend on his voice, a marked improvement over Accentuate the Positive and Moving on Skiffle, though not by much. There is something so tremendously empty about covering works already out there, already filled with heart. Recapturing this because there is nothing left to give is a miserable experience, no matter the intent.  

New Arrangements and Duets is as it says. A series of no musical choices and additional voices from unexplainable collaborations. Little, if any, are worth plucking from this messy collection of vague jazz-like numbers. At its best, the songs are vaguely palatable. Easily forgotten but never to be returned to, like a cheap wine at a restaurant with two options. The other option is silence – which at points throughout this album, would be preferable. Too many of the tracks hold a similar jazz beat to them, meaning Morrison is left with little to do in these instrumental sections. A lack of variation and a consistent return to the well of interesting lyrical ideas from two decades ago is a nasty pairing, a bitter experience which feels unremarkable in its best spots, of which there are few.