SHAZAM

Anyone who's followed Van Morrison's career knows that Sony has the rights to the recordings he made for Bang -- in other words, one album plus outtakes. Since part of the reason the Collections series is such a success for the label is that they stick to what's in the vaults -- it cuts their costs considerably to rely on what they already own -- Sony's options are pretty limited here. So, it isn't much of a surprise that what they come up with is essentially Morrison's debut, Blowin' Your Mind!, minus two songs (the notorious "T.B. Sheets" and "Who Drove the Red Sports Car"), plus a selection of four highlights from the session outtakes ("The Back Room," "It's All Right," "Chick-A-Boom," "Madame George"). In other words, there are no hits here outside of "Brown Eyed Girl," although this is still very good music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi