Listen To The Lion

ST.DOMINIC'S PREVIEW

VAN MORRISON

WARNER BROS.

THEM

FEATURING VAN MORRISON

PARROT

After Tupelo Honey Van Morrison must have been faced with a choice. He could continue with his domestic tranquility myth, which was as artistically false as it might have been literally true, or he could head for new turf. He has chosen the latter course (wisely I think). If the result is more curious than classic, perhaps that is the price of adventure.

There are strands of nearly every kind of music Van Morrison has ever made in this record. It is short on the darkness and fire of Them, but the lilting r’n’b of “Domino” and “Blue Money,” the exotic improvisation and searching of Astral Weeks and the mystic yearnings of Moondance are finally fullfledged. For the most part, St. Dominic’s is old concerns seen in new lights, and a smattering of new ones, and the music follows suit.