Van Morrison Last Record

In his old age, Van Morrison dispensed with any lingering niceties he harbored, favoring bluntness over poetry. That transition is made plain by the title Latest Record Project, Vol. 1, a literal description of the album if not its contents. Latest Record Project, Vol. 1 is indeed Morrison's latest record project as of 2021 – it's called "Vol. 1" because he recorded more than enough to fill a second volume, a remarkable feat considering that this album contains 28 tracks and runs well over two hours – and if that doesn't hint at what the music within sounds like, it's also true that Van Morrison has stayed in his R&B lane for much of the 2010s…

Almost a forgotten album, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart takes listeners to the deepest, most inward areas of Van Morrison's renegade Irish soul, the culmination of his spiritual jazz period and also – perhaps not coincidentally – the last record he made for Warner Bros. Four of the 11 tracks are moody instrumentals, which might partly explain the indifference of many rock critics toward the album, although the album's very title gives a clue to their presence. The mood is predominantly mellow but never flaccid or complacent; there is a radiance that glows throughout. "Higher Than the World" is simply one of the most beautiful recordings Morrison ever made, with Mark Isham's choir-like synthesizer laying down the lovely backdrop. The instrumental "Connswater" is the most Irish-flavored piece that Morrison had made up to that point, and would continue to be until he recorded with the Chieftains in 1988. "Rave on, John Donne" – in part a recitation invoking a roster of writers over a supple two-chord vamp – seems to have had the longest afterlife, reappearing in Morrison's live shows and greatest-hits compilations.

On Duets: Re-Working The Catalogue, Van Morrison and the guests selected and recorded some of his songs from the catalog of 360 songs across his career. Deliberately steering away from his more well-known classics, Van enlisted some of the artists he most respects to perform these songs with him to re-craft and re-imagine them. The album was recorded in his home town of Belfast and London in the United Kingdom over the last year, using a variety of musicians and fresh arrangements.