Condition:
Van Morrison - Poetic Champions Compose
Label: Mercury
Catalog#: 832 585-1
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Vinyl: VG+ to VG++, some very light scuffs
Cover has very light ring wear, slightly dented bottom corners, a small bend in the bottom right corner
Country: Canada issue
Released: 1987
Genre: Jazz, Rock
Style: Blues Rock
Credits: Bass - Steve Pearce
Drums, Percussion - Roy Jones
Engineer - Mick Glossop
Piano, Synthesizer - Neil Drinkwater
Producer, Vocals, Saxophone, Guitar, Harmonica - Van Morrison
Trumpet, Flugelhorn - Martin Drover
Written-By - Van Morrison (tracks: A1 to A4, B1 to B6)
Tracklisting:
A1 Spanish Steps (5:22)
A2 The Mystery (5:16)
A3 Queen Of The Slipstream (4:55)
A4 I Forgot That Love Existed (4:18)
A5 Somtimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child (4:20)
Arranged By - Van Morrison
Written-By - Traditional
B1 Celtic Excavation (3:17)
B2 Someone Like You (4:05)
B3 Alan Watts Blues (4:24)
B4 Give Me My Rapture (3:45)
B5 Did Ye Get Healed? (4:06)
B6 Allow Me (3:55)
Coming on the heels of the astounding No Guru No Method No Teacher, 1987's Poetic Champions Compose seemed a far less substantial work. Time, however, has uncovered both its musical merits and significance: it is here that Van, with understated confidence, embarks on a new course that would take him away from his inaccessible early 80's recordings towards a kind of soulful, well-crafted adult pop sound, a sound that would make his music a favorite with compilers of romantic movie soundtracks in the 90's.
Nonetheless, the lead-off instrumental "Spanish Steps" presents Morrison in a risk-taking mode. With his own alto sax in the role of lead instrument, Van makes up in passion what he lacks in virtuosity and offers melodic lines that are highly imagistic. (The same can be said of "Celtic Excavation" and "Allow Me," two instrumentals which frame the album at its middle and end respectively.)
Morrison is assisted by Neil Drinkwater's graceful acoustic piano work and Fiachra Trench's string arrangements. In Poetic Champions Compose, where the listener is treated to a soundscape that is more lush and full-bodied than what was created for the preceding albums, Drinkwater and Trench play a crucial role.
Trench's string arrangements are more pop-oriented than Jeff Labes' sinewy, jazz-tinged arrangements for "Tir Na Nog" (from No Guru) and "Summertime in England" (from Common One)."The Mystery," the album's first vocal track, benefits greatly from this new, rich texture and "Queen of the Slipstream," a veritable candy store of sweet sounds, is a guilty delight. Trench's woodwind arrangements also lend resonance to Morrison's brooding cover of the spiritual "Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child."
Pressing onward, "I Forgot that Love Existed" demonstrates Van's talent for distilling a desire as old as Ancient Greece into a deceptively simple lyric: "If my heart could do my thinking / And my head begin to feel..." "Someone like You" is an attractive pop ballad while "Did Ye Get Healed?" is Morrison's catchiest track since "Bright Side of the Road" with his alto shooting a spray of notes through an instantly memorable horn riff over a spirited tempo. The performance answers the question raised in the title with an emphatic Yes!
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