Van Morrison’s style is best described as a concoction of rock, blues, jazz, and soul. The 71-year-old six-time Grammy award winner released his newest album Keep Me Singing on September 30, 2016. This isn’t surprising due to the fact that Morrison has been consistently releasing albums since 1967, however, this album is all new music. He has not produced solely new content since his Born to Sing: No Plan B album released four years ago. The album also includes a cover of “Share Your Love With Me,” a song that has been performed by the famous Aretha Franklin and Kenny Rogers.

Morrison’s song in the album “Too Late” has a soulful twist is very similar to his previous works. The upbeat melody of the song has a happy vibe that contrasts its meaning of the song; the opening line is “it’s too late for sorrow, and it’s too late for tomorrow,” which creates an interesting tone compared to the tune. Morrison’s message is to be happy and let things go, which is why he uses a happy tune for an unhappy message. He also plays the saxophone in this song, which is one of the many instruments this multi-talented rocker can play.

Personally, I enjoyed the album, but I didn’t think it was anything special. Morrison needed to fill in the gaps with new content and it achieved what he was going for. To die-hard Morrison fans, this album would be hit because it sounds exactly like his old music. For an album of new material, I was expecting more. As a mediocre Morrison fan, I would say that Keep Me Singing deserves a total score of 6/10 because of its lack of fresh melodies. The best song was by far Morrison’s “Too Late,” only because it was pretty catchy. In total, Morrison has done a good job for releasing content since the sixties and has many well known songs, but Keep Me Singing?…Eh.

Track List:

“Let It Rhyme”

“Every Time I See A River”

“Keep Me Singing”

“Out In The Cold Again”

“Memory Lane”

“The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword”

“Holy Guardian Angel”

“Share Your Love With Me”

“In Tiburon”

“Look Beyond The Hill”

“Going Down To Bangor”

“Too Late”

“Caledonia Swing”