Ein Klassiker wieder auf Vinyl: Van Morrisons »The Healing Game«

Genau vor 20 Jahren erschien das 26. Studioalbum von Van Morrison. Passend zu diesem Jubiläum legt er die Platte 2017 neu auf, und zwar als 3-CD-Set und als LP. Hier ist die 20th-Anniversary-Edition von »The Healing Game«.

»The Healing Game« erschien ursprünglich bereits im März 1997. Nach seinen Jazzalben »How Long Has This Been Going On« (1995) und »Tell Me Something« (1996) kehrte der irische Musiker für »The Healing Game« zurück zu seinen Singer-Songwriter- und Folk-Rock-Wurzeln. Er komponierte und schrieb alle zehn Songs selbst und nahm sie auch in Eigenregie auf. Das Album landete auf Platz 10 der UK-Charts.

Van Morrison feiert den Geburtstag seines Albums »The Healing Game«. Dazu gibt es den Klassiker 2017 wieder auf Vinyl und als Set auf drei CDs.

Van Morrison's 23rd studio album of original material in 30 years follows two jazz-oriented side projects, during which he was able to indulge his affection for the works of others, especially those of Mose Allison. Returning to his own work, Morrison seems to want to come to terms with the bitterness sometimes expressed in more recent original albums like Too Long in Exile and Days Like This. That bitterness has not dissipated by any means, as he demonstrates most clearly in "This Weight" and "It Once Was My Life," but now he is at pains to make clear that he became a musician because of a pure, simple joy in music-making. But that joy has been reduced by the demands of celebrity, and if this makes him the Greta Garbo of rock, so be it. His fear is that he will be reduced to being merely an entertainer. When he isn't complaining, Morrison presents the same kind of material he has been giving us for decades now, mid-tempo tunes paced by warm, graceful horn charts in which he evokes passion and spirituality largely through the use of nature imagery and rhythmic repetition. In his attempt to get back to his original inspiration, however, he gives "It Once Was My Life" and especially "If You Love Me" a doo wop sound, which seems to achieve the desired effect, such that in the album-closing title track he declares success: "Here I am again/back on the corner again/back where I belong." And with his return to "those ancient streets," his career comes full circle.

(by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide)