Van Morrison – At The Movies – Soundtrack Hits / 2006 EMI / 19 Tracks / http://www.vanmorrison.co.uk / http://www.emicap.com / Reviewed 25 February 2007

Before listening to this CD, I only knew Van Morrison to do a little ditty called “Brown Eyed Girl”. However, the use of his music during movies shows me that the amount of work that ey has done in the last thirty-forty years has been impressive. For those individuals that are completists, there is only one previously unreleased song off of this disc (a live version of “Moondance” from the An American Werewolf in London soundtrack.

Of course, the beauty of this disc comes in the fact that it collects all of these songs from 19 different soundtracks and puts them together for individuals to easily listen to. The orientation of these tracks is also strong, seeming to be more than less in chronological order. One could argue that Morrison could provide more of a hand in “mixing” the tracks to allow for a cohesive thought, but the songs stand up well with this orientation. The interesting thing about this compilation is that most individuals will not have seen all nineteen of these movies. While individuals will be able to hear the tracks, they do not know the context in which the director and music producer wished to imbue on the track. I don’t know of how EMI could have given individuals a better sense of how the track was used, but perhaps if this CD was included in a box set with a 96 page booklet explaining how the songs were used, this compilation would be even better than it is now.

Perhaps the creation of this CD will allow for some of the older soundtracks to be re-mastered and re-released, which would have the effect of dropping down the exorbitant prices that are charged on ebay for some of the disc as well as unearthing some of the earlier works of the greatest composers (and artists like Van Morrison) in full contextual glory. The five live songs are likely those exclusive to the movies in which they originally appeared (Clean & Sober , An American Werewolf in London, The Last Waltz, Patch Adams, and The Deparated), so individuals should perhaps search out this album for the tracks being included without any non-Van Morrison related material. Again, individuals that are under 25 may not know all of the work that Van Morrison has done in the last forty years in popular music. While not a greatest hits per se, the disc is still strong in showing some of Van Morrison’s classic tracks and a few songs that are still impressive but never achieved notoriety.

Top Tracks: Days Like This, Wild Night

Rating: 5.9/10

[JMcQ]