Back on Top
Back on Topkicks off on an unpromising note with a generic blues shuffle, "Goin' Down Geneva," that belies the album's cocky title. Van Morrison quickly redeems himself, however, with a set otherwise closer in its balance of rave-up and reverie to his beloved early-'70s classics than much of his '90s output. "Philosophers Stone" is yet another position paper on the Belfast bard's art ("My job is turning lead into gold"), but it's welcome for its relative absence of complaint. Elsewhere, he revisits familiar themes of survival ("Back on Top"), celebrity's price ("New Biography"), and mortality ("Precious Time") in midtempo anthems laudable for deceptively buoyant tempos and crisp ensemble work. Vocally, his signature mix of rasp and croon proves as ripe as ever.--Sam Sutherland