Common One

iTunes Review

Though Irish R&B singer Van Morrison is best known for such hits as “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Moondance” and “Wild Night,” he is most critically respected for the intensity of his extended works: 1968’s Astral Weeks, 1974’s Veedon Fleece and 1980’s Common One, a six-song album that features two 15 minute tracks where his improvisational skills are stretched to the breaking point. “Summertime in England” is simply nuts, featuring several distinct passages, including a string section arranged by Pee Wee Ellis, that comprise a stream-of-consciousness epic that namechecks Wordsworth, Coleridge, Yeats and James Joyce. Morrison’s voice, his higher range dulled over time, still crackles here with bristling energy. “When Heart is Open” reflects Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way with Mark Isham’s muted trumpet recreating the placid waters from which Morrison grumbles in a meditative state. “Wild Honey” and “Satisfied” retain their R&B roots, but the soothing brood of “Haunts of Ancient Peace” points towards the vague new-age tonality that would shape much of Morrison’s work in the 1980s. One of Morrison’s finest.