Back On Top

this stunning batch of classic albums follows the outstanding success of the new collection - 'still on top: the greatest hits' album (october 2007) - a new studio album follows in march 2008. unavailable for three years, these 30 catalogue albums are to be released in 4 batches of 7/8 titles. each album will be re-mastered, with unreleased bonus tracks and complete lyrics. equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-sorcerer, van morrison is among popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose incantatory vocals and alchemical fusion of r&b, jazz, blues, and celtic folk produced perhaps the most spiritually transcendent body of work in the rock and roll canon. 'back on top', from 1999 is a return to the music that suits van so well - blues and r'n'b. opener 'goin' down geneva' is a great blues cut, 'back on top' swings like 'moondance' - era material while the beautiful track 'when the leaves come falling down' harks back to the meditative style of 'astral weeks'. includes the hit single - 'precious time', combining a fats domino feel with a weighty philosophical lyric about the impermanent nature of life. from the same sessions, there's a real treat among this edition's bonus cuts, a quite breathtaking cover of the dave bartholomew / fats domino song 'valley of tears' and 'the philosophers stone' (alternative version).