Van Morrison - Born To Sing: No Plan B (2012)

The subtitle of Van Morrison s new album, Born To Sing: No Plan B, indicates the
power that music still holds for this living legend. No Plan B means this is not a
rehearsal, says Morrison. That s the main thing it s not a hobby, it s real, happening
now, in real time. This sense of absolute conviction, which has defined Morrison s
revolutionary work for almost fifty years, runs throughout the new record, his thirtyfifth
studio album as a solo artist. The ten original songs on Born To Sing, his first
new album in four years (the longest he has ever gone between recordings), reveal
an artist continuing to test his creative parameters.
As Morrison notes, perhaps the most striking thing on the new album is hearing him
weigh in on the global financial and economic meltdown on several songs. His sense
of outrage at the materialism and greed that have poisoned society first appears in the
opening track, the breezy soul strut Open the Door (To Your Heart), when he sings
Money doesn t make you fulfilled/Money s just to pay the bills.
Born To Sing, recorded live in the studio with a core six-piece band (plus Morrison
on piano, guitar, and alto saxophone), extends these musical roots into a signature
blend that s impossible to imitate or to categorize. Despite the album s title, Morrison
says that he didn t immediately know that he was born to sing. I didn t know it was
going to be a job until I was maybe fifteen or sixteen and started working in bands,
he says. I was just a kid trying to make my way in life. There was no revelation it
doesn t work that way.
Ever since then, though, Van Morrison has offered non-stop revelation to fans around
the world. With Born To Sing, he responds to a time of crisis with solace and insight,
vision and wonder, and incomparable soul that shows what happens when you really
do create from the heart, with no Plan B.