“Rock’n’roll is about simplicity, sincerity and expressive power and there’s no way you can get away from that,” Van Morrison says about his new album of old classics. “That’s why it’s good and that’s why it’s lasted. It’s spirit music.”
Accentuate The Positive is a welcome recording from Morrison for a number of reasons. Firstly, his recent albums have, if anything, tended to accentuate the negative, with their occasional diversions into the world of conspiracy theory. Musically, too, they’ve avoided the long, passionate workouts of his best records, leaning heavily on his R&B roots (although those are pretty good roots to lean on). For some it’s a long way from the poetry and mysticism of Morrison’s best work (even if it is still away with the fairies). Still, things in Morrison’s world have always had a tendency to slouch towards Bethlehem in one form or another.
