Hymns to the Silence, CD Review

Van Morrison, 1991.

Funny to think that this album is nearly 20 years old, older than many established artists' careers, and pobably still regarded as a "later" opus in the Van Morrison canon.

It's one of my all-time favourites - there is a richness, assurance and maturity in the performances, arrangements and songwriting that carries us through a huge areray of emotional spheres.

In the last couple of evenings at hospice, I listened to Hymns at the end of the evening, and felt myself entering a special, peace-locked, eternal world when I got to the section on Disc 2 that begins with Hymns to the Silence and finishes with Carrying a Torch.

Hymns is a song of unquestioned devotion, and with a strong, flowing piano-based accompaniment we follow Van's account of how he comes back to the need of singing his hymns to the silence (inhabited by God). The chorus is unquestionably comforting and reassuring.

From there we move to On Hyndford Street, one of Van's reflective/nostalgic poems about childhood in Belfast (we are taken back to the pylons we first encountered in Brown Eyed Girl). We see with Van the images of kids playing up and down the street. Musical accompaniment is low keyboard chords - a mere suggestion of atmosphere...

Be Thou My Vision follows, a pretty straight rendering with accompaniment and instrumental interludes by The Chieftains. If and when you attend my funeral, you will be singing this one. Van, having brought us into close intimacy with his soul, takes us soaring communally in praise of God. Extremely moving.

Carrying a Torch finishes this most intimate and deep of CD pop sections - is he carrying a torch for God, or for a loved one? Of course it could be both! Either way, it is once again the intensity of performance that persuades us that the torch-carrying has indeed been worthwhile.

It's great to hear Van's band - including Georgie Fame on Hammond B2 organ, his backing vocalists, etc.

And there are othe highlights on the album - it is after all a solid double CD of original music.

But these 4 songs make it, for me, something altogether special again...

Highly recommended.

20/10.