Search - Van Morrison :: Sense of Wonder (Exp)

"Gravy Rings, Wagon Wheels, Barn Bracks, Snowballs..." - The

Mark Barry at Reckless Records, Lon | UK | 02/10/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Released in February 1985, "A Sense Of Wonder" followed after 1984's purely functional live set "Grand Opera House, Belfast" and I remember was greeted at the time as a bit of a let down. "Wonder" occupies a three star place in Van's five star ranks for most fans, but this 28 January 2008 REMASTER has REALLY GREAT SOUND and excellent bonus tracks, and on hearing both the album again with it new additions, these songs are better than I remembered them. Maybe its time to push that 3-Star rating up to 4!



Here's how it's laid out: Tracks 1 to 10 make up the original album with Tracks 11 and 12 being previously unreleased alternate takes of "Crazy Jane On God" and "A Sense Of Wonder". "Crazy Jane On God" was never on the original album; it first appeared as an outtake on the 2CD set "The Philosopher's Stone - The Unreleased Tapes" from 1998 (all previously unreleased tracks). Like that 1998 version, this different take has GORGEOUS sound quality - a superlative bonus track. The alternate version of the album title track fares less well though. It's easy to see why this `starter' version of "A Sense Of Wonder" was left in the can. It's done in a slightly faster pace and at 6:08 minutes, it's shorter than the final album version of 7:11 minutes. It's a good version of the song - it is - but it's missing something. That something was the truly fantastic contribution MOVING HEARTS made to the finished version. MH are not on this cut, and it shows. Still, what we do have is the lovely organ playing of JOHN ALLAIR featuring throughout and while it's absolutely not as good as the uplifting final, it's nonetheless an excellent addition here. I'm always wary of outtakes and alternate versions as bonus material on re-issue CDs that act as a cheap way of suckering fans to purchasing more of the same. But these two choices are inspired for the most part - and an absolute must-have for Van lovers.



The album contains two instrumentals - "Boffyflow And Spike" is fun, but "Evening Meditation" is much better - harking back to the stunning moody Celtic Mystique instrumentals on "Inarticulate Speech of the Heart" from 1983. But the album's centre and masterpiece is the title track "A Sense Of Wonder". MOVING HEARTS, an Irish band both famous and beloved for its mixture of Rock, Irish folk and incendiary politics, feature as backing musicians on it (they're also on "Boffyflow & Spike"). DAVY SPILLANE, Moving Hearts' virtuoso UiIeann pipe player, adds truly heart-touching flourishes to the track, which combines with BIANCO THORNTON and PAULINE LAZANO on backing vocals to perfectly matched effect (their vocals feature on six of the album's ten tracks). To this day, the track brings tears to my Irish goggleboxes - Van at his best.



There are two covers on the album; "What Would I Do?" is a Ray Charles slow love song and is superbly and warmly delivered, but the R'n'B/jazzy cover of Mose Allison's "If You Only Knew" seems out of place here - Van sounds like Georgie Fame on a very bad day and no matter how much he may love Allison's catalogue - this isn't a great song nor an inspired delivery. More successful is "Let The Slave"; Van's plaintive music put to the wonderful words of William Blake's "The Price Of Experience", with Bianca and Pauline Lazano once again adding great backing vocals. An overlooked gem called "A New Kind Of Man" finishes the album with both PEE WEE ELLIS and BOB DOLL providing lovely brass work in the background.



The upgraded booklet contains all the lyrics in the same "leafy" style as the original vinyl album inner bag and reproduces the bewildering "Boffyflow And Spike" story, also on the inner sleeve. There's a brief list of who sessioned on what, but disappointingly there's no history of where the album fits in, no new liner notes, nor any photographs. However, a nice touch is the lyrics to the alternate takes - the record company could have lazily left out "Crazy" and reproduced the `same' lyrics for "Wonder" at the end of the booklet, but closer examination shows they haven't. The lyrics for Crazy" are provided as are the free forming of the alternate "Wonder" - a nice touch.



But the best bit is definitely the SOUND. The original analogue master tapes have been 96K/24 Bit digitally remastered by Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering in London - and the sound is BEAUTIFULLY CLEAR and WARM - making you reassess every song and the superb musicianship on each. Each disc that I've bought in this series have all all been revelations so far - and this album too - a nice "new" surprise.



All in all, a SUPERB REMASTER then and one I urge fans to give another chance to.



PS:

Like "A Sense Of Wonder", 28 other Van Morrison albums are to be re-issued in remastered form throughout 2008 and into early 2009. Each will contain upgraded booklets, previously unreleased material and all will be at mid-price. They'll be released in 4 batches as follows (29 in total):



January 2008 (7 titles)

Tupelo Honey (1971), It's Too Late To Stop Now (2 CD Live Set) (1974),

Wavelenght (1978), Into The Music (1979), A Sense Of Wonder (1985),

Avalon Sunset (1989) and Back On Top (1999)



June 2008 (8 titles)

Veedon Fleece (1974), Common One (1980), Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (1983), Live At The Grand Opera House, Belfast (1984), No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986), Enlightenment (1990), A Night In San Francisco (2CD Live Set) (1994) and The Healing Game (1997)



November 2008 (7 titles)

Saint Dominic's Preview (1972), A Period Of Transition (1977), Beautiful Vision (1982), Poetic Champions Compose (1987), Hymns To The Silence (2CD Studio Set) (1991), How Long Has This Been Going On (Live At Ronnie Scott's) (1995), Tell Me Something - The Songs Of Mose Allison (1996)



January 2009 (8 titles)

Hard Nose The Highway (1973), Irish Heartbeat (with The Chieftains) (1988),

Too Long In Exile (1993), Days Like This (1995), The Story Of Them (2CD Set) (1999), The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast (with Lonnie Donegan & Chris Barber) (2000), Down The Road (2002) and What's Wrong With This Picture? (2003)



PPS:

Those hoping to see desperately needed sonic upgrades of his 1st and 2nd album masterpieces on Warner Bothers "Astral Weeks" (1968) and "Moondance" (1970) or even "His Band & The Street Choir" (late 1970) will be disappointed to hear that they're NOT in this re-issue campaign. Apparently there is still some dispute between the record label and Van that remains unresolved. A damn shame! "Astral Weeks" and "Moondance" in particular have both been languishing around on crappy-sounding non-remastered CDs for over 20 years now and they're glaringly obvious omissions in this supposedly 'extensive' re-issue campaign. These universally recognized masterpieces deserve 2CD DELUXE EDITION treatment and soon. (Some tracks in remastered form are available across the 3 volumes of "Best Of"). Let's hope they sort their differences and soon!



Also, Van's new studio album "Keep It Simple" is due 17 March 2008 in the UK and 1 April 2008 in the USA



(For those interested in this re-issue series, I've also done reviews for almost all of Batch 1 and 2 above)"

THE EMPEROR'S NEW, AND ONLY PARTIALLY-REMASTERED, CLOTHING

BOB | LOS ANGELES, CA | 04/02/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"
Polygram ceased production of its portion of Van-The-Man's catalog, resulting in 29 titles, two-thirds of his entire recorded output, remaining frustratingly unavailable for the past several years. Even more regrettably, sixteen of those OOP titles had been fabulously remastered and re-released in 1998. Accordingly, prices for these had soared, especially for the remastered titles.



Then, in late 2007, The Announcement! All 29 OOP titles would be re-released in 2008! With new remastering! Extra tracks! Even mini-sleeve editions from Japan!



Well, fellow audiophiles and mini-sleeve aficionados, the hyperbole is unfortunately only half-true: Those 16 1998 remastered titles? Except for the bonus tracks, the 2008 re-releases are the EXACT same remasters, right down to the `98 silkscreen scheme on each disc, and the `98 booklets, with only minimally text-modified for the bonus material and production credits.



The `98 mastering work was performed by Ian Cooper at Metropolis Mastering in London. The `08 booklets credit another Metropolis engineer, Tim Young, for the new editions. However, the only effort Mr. Young expended on the sixteen 1998 titles was to sonically match the minute bonus content to the pre-existing `98 mastering.



So, in this first 7-CD set (Tupelo Honey, It's Too Late To Stop Now, Wavelength, Into The Music, A Sense Of Wonder, Avalon Sunset and Back On Top) of four 2008 scheduled catalog re-releases, only Avalon Sunset and Back On Top have been newly-remastered. As the Japan `sleeve version of Back On Top was delayed until April, I haven't had the opportunity to A/B that disc. The result of remastering the 20-year-old Avalon Sunset could certainly be more pronounced than redoing 1999's Back On Top, so that remains to be quantified. The Japanese also floated something called "high-quality SHM-CD format" on the mini-sleeve versions (which are always my CD's of choice), but I can't discern any audible improvement in that department, either.



(Although I have referred to my A/B set-up in other Amazon reviews, due to the subject matter herein, I should probably reiterate that my comparisons are made on two Sony XA7 transports, simultaneously running into a Camelot Uther DAC via matching Acoustic Zen coax cables, and monitored thru Sennheiser 590's).



This same existing-remaster+bonus-tracks scenario will apply for the other 1998-remastered titles to be released later this year: Saint Dominic's Preview, Hard Nose Down The Highway, Veedon Fleece, Period Of Transition, Beautiful Vision, Inarticulate Speech, Common One, Live/Belfast, No Guru, Poetic Champions Compose and Irish Heartbeat.



Don't get me wrong, these all sound glorious. Yes, it is wonderful to have these fantastic recordings readily available once more, and again, yes, it's great to finally have a newly-remastered Avalon Sunset. By the end of 2008, it will also be especially joyous to own the other 13 never-before remastered titles.



However, speaking for myself, who already owned all the remastered `98's, the mastering sleight-of-hand was NOT appreciated, especially at mini-sleeve premium prices. There is also Polygram's deplorable Enron-like tactic of taking the entire series out of production for an extended period of time to create demand, years longer than just the clearing of the older releases in the retail channel via sell-off would have required. As a retailer acquaintance once sagely observed: "Nobody wants to buy anything until it's deleted", a lesson the financially-struggling Universal Music Group (Polygram's odious parent) is obviously applying in spades here. The record labels bemoan the loss of CD sales, but it is exactly this kind of manipulative marketing ka-ka that provides impetus to consumer alienation.



So, if like me, you already owned the `98's, the only decision in reinvesting in the `08's are the a.) meager-two-tracks-per-disc "bonus" material, and b.) to-buy-or-not-to-buy the more expensive Japan `sleeve editions. The bonus tracks could have been released as a separate set (A "Philosopher's Stone Volume 2", perhaps?), but then, of course, Polygram wouldn't net the possible re-sale of 16 additional CD's per VanFan.



As for the desirability of the bonus tracks themselves, I'll leave it to others to opine on whether the return on such a substantial reinvestment is either a worthwhile, or foolhardy, expense.



WHAT IS A JAPAN "MINI-LP-SLEEVE" CD?



Have you ever lamented the loss of one of the 20th Century's great art forms, the 12" vinyl LP jacket? Then "mini-LP-sleeve" CD's may be for you.



Mini-sleeve CDs are manufactured in Japan under license. The disc is packaged inside a 135MM X 135MM cardboard precision-miniature replica of the original classic vinyl-LP album. Also, anything contained in the original LP, such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed LP sleeves, stickers, embosses, special LP cover paper/inks/textures and/or die cuts, are precisely replicated and included. An English-language lyric sheet is always included, even if the original LP did not have printed lyrics.



Then, there's the sonic quality: Often (but not always), mini-sleeves have dedicated remastering (20-Bit, 24-Bit, DSD, K2/K2HD, and/or HDCD), and can often (but not always) be superior to the audio on the same title anywhere else in the world. There also may be bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.



Each Japan mini-sleeve has an "obi" ("oh-bee"), a removable Japan-language promotional strip. The obi lists the Japan street date of that particular release, the catalog number, the mastering info, and often the original album's release date. Bonus tracks are only listed on the obi, maintaining the integrity of the original LP artwork. The obi's are collectable, and should not be discarded.



All mini-sleeve releases are limited edition, but re-pressings/re-issues are becoming more common (again, not always). The enthusiasm of mini-sleeve collecting must be tempered, however, with avoiding fake mini-sleeves manufactured in Russia and distributed throughout the world, primarily on eBay. They are inferior in quality, worthless in collectable value, a total waste of money, and should be avoided at all costs."

SUPERB JAPANESE MINI LP!

RafuXo | Brazil, SC Joinville | 04/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"


...Really without words! really a wonderful japanese reissue! In this time in SHM-CD, a new format, better than any other US reissue! buy this instead the US 2008 version!

The Price is Y2.800 japanese yene, aprox. USD30.00. all on HMV, or CD-JAPAN, amazon the price is a absurd!"