Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 07/01/2008
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher was
Van Morrison's second studio album for
Mercury, following
A Sense of Wonder and
Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast. It was recorded at the height of his spiritual period and is among the most laid-back records of his career.
Morrison's notion of seeking, and being all but drowned by his obsession with "reclaiming the previous," is everywhere here, beginning with the set's opener,
"Got to Go Back." With a striking wide-open acoustic piano, accompanied by a solo on oboe (by
Kate St. John no less) twinned by
Richie Buckley's soprano saxophone and an acoustic guitar,
Morrison offers in waltz tempo these reflections: "When I was a young boy back in Orangefield/I used to look out my classroom window and dream/And then go home and listen to
Ray sing/'I Believe to My Soul' after school/Oh that love that was within me/You know it carried me through/Well it lifted me up and it filled me/Got to go back/Got to go back/To the feeling." And if anything, this album is, like so many other statements made by
Morrison in the years before this, a consumptive obsession with innocence, with the puzzling notion of God, of liberation from earthly constraints, while being immersed in them by the sheer physicality in his music -- despite every attempt at ethereality. This is followed by
"Oh the Warm Feeling," which only underscores the notion of memory and lost innocence amid lovely oboe, acoustic guitar, organs, and vibes as
Morrison sings in the past tense, juxtaposing it against the present. The Celtic soul that comes elegiacally forth from
"Foreign Window" is among the album's finest tracks. This is one of the most nakedly spiritual cuts
Morrison has ever recorded, looking at a person or Muse, coming once more out of his past that is at once part of his eternal present, where he weaves some of his finest lyrics with one of his more dynamic and texturally varied compositions; it's a love song, and an entreaty with a gorgeous arrangement. If anything, these three cracks usher in the notion that this album is an extended meditation that reflects a willingness to stay present in the tension and mantra-like melody of his concerns and not escape them -- very often.
"A Town Called Paradise," however, is the exception. It is a classic midtempo rocker that seems to come from as far back as
Astral Weeks, with its woven, pulsing layers of acoustic guitars, though punctuated by female backing vocals, tenor saxophone, and an electric solo guitar. Interestingly, there is a play on words here, called
"Here Comes the Knight," which doesn't reference the earlier version he recorded with
Them, and is elliptical in terms of its lyrics. There are a couple of longer selections here as well, in the Celtic R&B of
"Tir Na Nog" and the frustration in
Thanks for the Information," detailing the pitfalls of the spiritual path. Combined, these tunes make for an album that will be deeply satisfying and even provocative for seasoned
Morrison fans, but make it a slog for newer or less dedicated listeners. [In 2008,
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher was remastered and released with a pair of bonus tracks: an alternate take of
"Oh the Warm Feeling" that was rightfully cast off, and an early version of
"Lonely at the Top."]
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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