To promote his upcoming album Van is interviewed in The Independent by Ian Rankin.
“Some people need to keep evolving, others wanna just repeat the same thing. I’m more prone to evolve” says Van. The video shows him playing some of his new songs, which sound great, but essentially no different to anything he’s produced over the last few decades. He also plays his 1964 hit Baby Please Don’t Go and talks about how much better things were in the past and his preference for analogue recording techniques.
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Bartleby says
God he’s having a laugh isn’t he. I listened to the latest single (“Too Late”?) and it could have come from just about any album from Inarticulate Speech onwards. Same instrumentation, same rim shot quiet drums. For God sake man! Listen to Too Late to Stop Now, ditch the Val Doonican muzak arrangements and get a riot going!
Black Type says
I love most of his work (up to Hymns’ at least), but as Bartleby suggests, he’s deluded. He has made a career virtue of ploughing the same musical fusion of soul, jazz, folk and blues and spiritual/meditative lyrical themes for decades, often to sublime effect but in more recent times for ever diminishing returns. Less evolution and more regression, I would suggest.
Junior Wells says
I suspect the evolutions to which he refers are far more subtle than we would notice.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Yep, I’d bet a hundred Irwins that’s precisely the case.
metal mickey says
Artists, eh? In all fairness, Van probably imagines every album he does to be a huge quantum leap in his style – maybe writing the songs in different places, and playing with different sidemen in different studios with different producers makes the process seem vastly “new” every time (I’m not a fan BTW, maybe he does the same thing every album!)
ernietothecentreoftheearth says
Hanging’s too good for him
Tiggerlion says
😃
TRMagicWords says
Bit strong…
Junior Wells says
yes Mickey – that is a much more cogent way of explaining what I was thinking.
Baron Harkonnen says
If as Gary says the new songs sound great, that`ll do me. What`s the guy supposed to do at his stage in life FFS?
The interview, can`t be arsed listening to it, Ian Rankin is a decent enough guy but it`s a gimmick. Still the same old gubbins discussed same as, same as, toodle pip.
fentonsteve says
He’s still evolving his slapstick comedy routine, though.
Bartleby says
It doesn’t seem to matter who he uses. If he keeps telling the drummer to quieten down and stick to side sticking, if the keyboard player is stuck with a B3 Hammond sound, if the guitarist is permanently in Fender Tweed heaven, it’s going to sound the same every time. He’s been flirting with elevator music sounds since the late 70s. Sadly, touring Astral Weeks and reissuing and augmenting It’s Too Late to Stop Now don’t seem to have refreshed his aural palette.
Junior Wells says
Well,why would they refresh it. Of those icons, only Dylan seems to have travelled paths anew for better or for worse.
I checked his discography before challenging your elevator comments and you are pretty right. Some of that glorious Celtic stuff was in the early eighties but essentially, yes. Still, the voice always seduces me,
Artery says
I actually think that some of Van’s 1980s output was nearly the equal of his golden 1970s run of greatness. Check out No Guru, No Method, No Answer. Agree that an auto-pilot writing slump set in after Hymns To the Silence circa 1992. Some great live shows in the 90s too, before he took the pledge in 2000 and lost his sense of adventure and sense of humour.
He is still capable of an inspired performance though. The pipes are in great shape and on a special occasion he can still hit a higher plane.
dai says
I agree completely. The 80s may even be better than the 70s period, certainly more consistent. Days Like This was the start of the Van by numbers period *, but his commercial standing rose.
* I do like The Healing Game a lot though
Vulpes Vulpes says
Always glad to hear there’s a Van album I haven’t yet investigated. I already love ‘No Guru, No Method, No Teacher’, so this could be a joy to discover. 😉
Artery says
Whoops again. Not my day.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Console yourself with a lazy listen to ‘Too Long In Brexit’, it’s a great listen.
Mike_H says
Dunno about “Prone to Evolve”.
Pretty much “Supine since Seventies”.
Blue Boy says
God knows I love Van, but he does talk some bollocks doesn’t he?
He was still making great records into th 90s though – The Healing Game is a cracker.