End Of The Land and Song Of Home almost go so far as to resurrect the spirit of the country-inflected folk/soul of Van's golden period. Yes, this seems to be a sober, happier ,healthier Van than we've seen in a long while.įrom this point on it's all terrain that'll make the seasoned Van-watcher happy, and will welcome in anybody who wonders why such a legendary sourpusss maintains such a standing.
Here he seems to be revealing his renouncement of the bottle telling us that he doesn't hang around with his friends 'Mose' (Allison, one presumes) and 'Mr Clive' (Georgie Fame?) and that he doesn't consider himself a 'legend in my own mind'. For every song like School Of Hard Knocks where he tells us, once more, how he was left 'high and dry' by colleagues, there's Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore.
It's the way it's sung that matters, and Van is still peerless in this respect.īut Keep It Simple also seems to have a certain amount of atonement for past sins about it. Let's face it: the blues wouldn't be the blues without it's lyrical template. He's returned to the usual mixture of autobiographical fare (School Of Hard Knocks) and the kind of folky r 'n' b that may be chock-full of lyrical cliche (cf: the punningly-titled That's Entrainment) but is always lifted by a voice that really hasn't deteriorated much in the last twenty years. Which is strange, because Keep It Simple is a mainly bluesy affair.
And after over 40 years of telling us that it ain't why, it just is, who are we to argue as to whether it's good or bad? But the really good news is that after his somewhat dodgy foray into country with Pay The Devil, he's really back on top.