Remembering Now Review - English version
Well, after years of turnings, digressions, and returns to the roots, covers and Covid-19 albums, Van Morrison returns to the glories of the Seventies and Eighties. He does so with what will probably be remembered as his best album since The Healing Game and Hymns to the Silence, but with a compactness and inspiration that lead us into the period following Common One, Beautiful Vision, and Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. We find ourselves in the territory of A Sense of Wonder, Poetic Champions Compose, and Avalon Sunset. We are therefore in the realm of the masterpiece—or almost! Because with Remembering Now, Morrison embraces his own past to build a luminous, spiritual, and inspired present. There is an intangible, almost magical quality in Van Morrison’s finest albums: that ability to suspend time, to evoke ancestral memories while being firmly rooted in the here and now. Remembering Now, released on June 13, 2025, not only fully embodies this alchemy but makes it the very core of its inspiration. It is an album that vibrates with awareness, breathes through every note, and—as the title suggests—invites us to remember the present. The new album, his forty-seventh studio release, marks a return to form for Morrison as we hadn’t seen since Hymns to the Silence (1991), and perhaps even Poetic Champions Compose; recalling the glories of Veedon Fleece, Into The Music, and Common One. Yet this is not purely about nostalgia, since Van Morrison doesn’t merely pick up the threads of the past; he weaves them back with grace, renewing his musical and lyrical language within a modern, deeply emotional framework. Remembering Now is not a one-note record; on the contrary, it is a broad collection, unfolding across fourteen compositions, lasting nearly seventy minutes—indeed, running like one and a half albums by classical-era standards. The coherence and composure with which he writes and records this album is nothing short of surprising, magnetic, with an emotional engagement we haven’t felt in far too long. We’re speaking of a listening that is still limited, given that the album has only been on our stereos for a few days; we’ll have to see whether these sensations will deepen or not. However, it reignites our desire to revisit nearly his entire discography, focusing attention from the Seventies through the latter half of the Nineties. Not a bad start, right? Through all this, what strikes most is Van’s renewed vocal intensity. At eighty years young, his voice doesn’t seek to mask the wounds of time, but transforms them into a powerful expressive depth that takes no prisoners. It is a voice that tells, consoles, questions. As he himself states, “the concept of flow is beyond thought, beyond analysis”: it is this instinctive freedom, this letting oneself be traversed by music, that permeates the entire album.
The record is also an inner journey, a spiritual awakening that reflects itself both in the lyrics and harmonic choices. Remembering Now evokes that “inarticulate language of the heart” that Morrison was chasing already in Into The Music and Common One. The lyrical images are often simple but powerfully evocative. Green fields in summer, the light of a serene morning, the wonder of an enduring love—or perhaps simply one not forgotten. Even in its more relaxed moments, Remembering Now never loses its balance. There are no forced climaxes, no filler tracks, and everything seems born from an authentic urgency, from renewed inspiration. The musical flow is continuous, meditative, almost cinematic. It’s an album to be listened to unhurriedly, revealing itself slowly, but in the end rewarding with a rare fullness in these times. It is no surprise that the most attentive critics— from Mojo to Uncut—have embraced this work as a return to greatness. But the most astonishing thing is that Remembering Now doesn’t sound like a return; it sounds more like a new beginning. Morrison doesn’t celebrate the past so much as its power to illuminate the present. In his greatest episodes—and there are many over a career that began in the Sixties—Van Morrison didn’t sing simple stories; he didn’t just reminisce memories. He invited us into a spiritual dimension where every note, every breath, becomes prayer, an exploration of the light that can still burn within him—and within us. The opening with “Down to Joy” is like a light suddenly exploding after a long winter. The joy here isn’t superficial or fleeting but a sacred feeling, a return to the original purity of the human heart that pulses with energy, hope, and gratitude. Van’s voice soars above a musical carpet that seems made of sunbeams and eternal moments, and it is impossible not to be carried away by this anthem to life celebrating spiritual rebirth with a sincerity that cuts like a ray of light through the mist.
With “Haven’t Lost My Sense of Wonder,” the music becomes meditation, an invitation to rediscover that sense of wonder so often lost in the clamor of the modern world. Here Van speaks to us with the voice of a sage who has seen both shadow and light and has never ceased to be astonished by the miracle of existence. It is a track that vibrates with sweetness and sacredness, like a mantra reminding us of beauty hidden in the most intimate folds of the soul. “Cutting Corners” enters with the grace of a deep breath, but also with awareness of the limitations and imperfections that characterize human life. It is a song that doesn’t shy away from showing its fragility, yet does so with almost mystical strength, as if Van were confessing his sins with silent dignity. Don Black’s poetry and Seth Lakeman’s warm violin form the soundtrack, between transience and hope, between the weight of the past and the desire to go beyond. When “Once in a Lifetime Feelings” arrives, an almost sacred intimacy is perceived. The song feels like a prayer—a moment of reflection in which Van lets the heart speak, revealing the most authentic and profound emotions. It is not just nostalgia, but a spiritual embrace reminding us how life is made of unrepeatable moments, of sensations that remain imprinted in time as marks of light. “Memories and Visions” opens like an infinite landscape, a sonic canvas on which Van paints with delicacy the colors of the soul. Here music becomes contemplation—a dialogue with the mystery that passes through us and transforms us. Every note, every word vibrates with a sense of sacredness that transcends the material to touch what is eternal and immutable. It is like hearing a prayer in music—an invitation to immerse oneself in the flow of existence with an open heart. “When the Rains Came” is a ballad that seems to fall from the sky like a blessing. With its slow, hypnotic melody, it leads us into a purification rite where rain becomes a symbol of rebirth and inner peace. Van’s voice becomes an instrument of healing—a song that dissolves shadows and renews hope. There is a mystical dimension in this track that envelops us like a caress, making us feel part of something greater.
Remembering Now is a spiritual manifesto, a call to be present, to live the moment with all the fullness of the heart. Here Van becomes the mouthpiece of wisdom that isn’t only his but belongs to anyone who has had the courage to look within themselves and face their fears and desires. It is a song vibrant with energy and truth, a hymn that resonates like a powerful echo in our consciousness.
Finally, “Stretching Out” closes the album with an infinite embrace—a sonic ecstasy that stretches time and space. It is a mystical journey in which Van seems to merge with the universe, where every note is a breath of the soul reaching toward the infinite, toward transcendence. Van Morrison invites the listener to reconnect with the present moment, rediscovering that beauty and enchantment don’t belong only to the past, but are still found in the “here and now.” The track, closing the album with a meditative, undulating atmosphere, embodies precisely that spirit of wonder that made some of his most inspired works famous. It is a mantra in the rhythm of a modern waltz—practically a marvel. A new classic with an evident nod to “Ancient Highway,” the formidable 1995 track from Days like This.
Remembering Now is not just an album to listen to—it is an experience to live with all your heart. It is the testimony of a man who has weathered life’s storms and who today offers us the greatest gift: his inner light, pure and vibrant, capable of touching our souls with the sweetness of an eternal embrace. Van Morrison reminds us that music is a sacred path—a journey of transformation and love that never ends. And on this album, every song is an open door toward rebirth, toward the joy born from memory and conscious presence. A spiritual masterpiece, an invitation to remember now, to live here and now, with a gaze full of wonder.
Dario Greco
Commenti
Posta un commento