Van Morrison has shared the title track from his new double album, Latest Record Project: Volume 1, set to arrive May 7th via Exile/BMG.
“Latest Record Project” is a cheeky bit of classic yet self-aware soul. It finds Morrison pairing vintage sonics — Hammond organ, shuffling drums, backing vocalists cooing “sha-la-la” — with the musings of an artist who has a back catalog packed with hits but hasn’t ceased making new music: “Have you got my latest songs I’m singing?/You got my latest songs I’m singing?/Not something from so long ago/Not something that you might want to know/But something I can relate to in the present.”
In a statement, Morrison said: “I’m getting away from the perceived same songs, same albums all the time. This guy’s done 500 songs, maybe more, so hello? Why do you keep promoting the same 10? I’m trying to get out of the box.”
Latest Record Project: Volume 1 boasts a whopping 28 songs, which Morrison wrote and recorded while in quarantine — not something the musician has been particularly fond of. Per a release, the album will feature at least one song about life in lockdown, “Dead Beat Saturday Night,” although the tracklist does not include any of the anti-lockdown songs Morrison released last year.
Morrison mainly wrote the songs on Latest Record Project on piano, guitar, or saxophone. Two tracks — “Love Should Come With a Warning” and “Mistaken Identity” — feature lyrics co-written with Don Black.
Latest Record Project: Volume 1 is available to preorder on double-CD, deluxe-CD, triple-vinyl, and digital formats. The LP follows Morrison’s 2019 effort, Three Chords and the Truth.
Latest Record Project: Volume 1 Tracklist
Disc One
1. “Latest Record Project”
2. “Where Have All the Rebels Gone?”
3. “Psychoanalysts’ Ball”
4. “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
5. “Tried to Do the Right Thing”
6. “The Long Con”
7. “Thank God for the Blues”
8. “Big Lie”
9. “A Few Bars Early”
10. “It Hurts Me Too”
11. “Only a Song”
12. “Diabolic Pressure”
13. “Deadbeat Saturday Night”
14. “Blue Funk”
Disc Two
1. “Double Agent”
2. “Double Bind”
3. “Love Should Come With A Warning”
4. “Breaking The Spell”
5. “Up County Down”
6. “Duper’s Delight”
7. “My Time After a While”
8. “He’s Not the Kingpin”
9. “Mistaken Identity”
10. “Stop Bitching, Do Something”
11. “Western Man”
12. “They Own the Media”
13. “Why Are You on Facebook?”
14. “Jealousy”
From Rolling Stone US
