Prolific over the decades, Singer-Songwriter Van Morrison’s latest effort, Remembering Now, is a passionate return to form, an arcing and soulful album that sees the revered artist reconnect with themes of reflection, love, and spiritual understanding.
Released on June 13, 2025, through Exile, the fourteen-track record captures elements of each genre, decade, and artistic journey that Morrison has experienced. However, even with such nostalgic undercurrents pulsating through the record, at seventy-nine, Morrison does not merely revisit familiar terrain. Instead, he plants a flag and reclaims it, delivering his first collection of original tracks since 2022. With that in mind, these tracks feel not only intensely personal but also musically fresh and expansive. What is his forty-seventh overall studio album, it marks a vacation from the more politically oriented tone of some recent releases, favoring instead a heartfelt, more introspective mood marinated in memory and emotion.
Quite compelling, it leans into Morrison’s signature Celtic soul, with deeply-layered arrangements that incorporate elements of Jazz, Blues, Gospel, and Orchestral Pop. For example, the opening track, “Down to Joy” (also the highly anticipated first single off the record), sets the tone with sweeping strings and a buoyant big-band feel. From here, songs like “Haven’t Lost My Sense of Wonder” and “Stretching Out” explore Morrison’s enduring belief in the value of artistic and spiritual curiosity. Van Morrison sounds energized yet contemplative, his voice as emotive as ever, with a gravelly tone that’s like molasses in moments of longing, and smooth and radiant when evoking joy or romance.
Musically, Remembering Now features longtime musical collaborators who provide a consistent and familiar foundation. Richard Dunn plays the Hammond organ, Stuart McIlroy handles the piano, Pete Hurley anchors the bass lines, and Colin Griffin keeps time on drums and percussion. These musicians, all veterans of Morrison’s recent recordings, lend the album its anchored, organic feel, with a sense of adventure that keeps listeners engaged, teetering on the edge of their seats, trying to surmise which direction the group will take them next.
Furthermore, the influences running through Remembering Now seem to touch all corners of Morrison’s musical life, at times drifting and blending into almost foreign sounds, yet unmistakably always Morrison’s own. There are reverberations of 1968’s Astral Weeks in the fluid song structures and emotional openness, as well as an essence of 1970’s Moondance in the rhythmic ease and soulful energy. Gospel flourishes provide tracks like “The Only Love I Ever Need Is Yours,” which offers spiritual uplift. At the same time, “Stomping Ground” and “When the Rains Came” carry nostalgic weight, recalling Morrison’s youth and musical beginnings as the song propels listeners down a lane of auditory memories.
Ultimately, Remembering Now is more than just a new creation from a legendary artist; it is a reaffirmation of Van Morrison’s bursting creative spirit. Morrison does not struggle with identity or inclusivity at this point in his career. He knows exactly the type of artist he is and how to deliver the goods that millions of people around the world have come to love and intensely cherish.
A true highlight in an already supernatural career, Remembering Now, will forever shine in the discography of a musical titan and bequeath happiness to all those with whom it crosses paths. The first must-listen of the summer, Cryptic Rock gives Van Morrison’s Remembering Now 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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