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Back on Top (Van Morrison album)

Back on Top
Back on Top (album cover).jpg
Studio album by Van Morrison
Released 9 March 1999
Recorded Wool Hall Studios, Beckington, 1998
Genre Blues, R&B
Length 52:08
Label Point Blank/Virgin
Producer Van Morrison
Van Morrison chronology
The Philosopher's Stone
(1998)The Philosopher's Stone1998
Back on Top
(1999)
The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 1998
(2000)The Skiffle Sessions – Live in Belfast 19982000
Singles from Back on Top
  1. "Precious Time"
    Released: February 1999
  2. "Back on Top"
    Released: May 1999
  3. "Philosopher's Stone"
    Released: August 1999

Back on Top is the twenty-seventh studio album by Northern Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison. It was released in 1999 by Point Blank. This album marks a slight return to the forms of music he is most known for: blues and R&B. Upon the album's release, Rolling Stone reviewed it as "one Monet and nine Norman Rockwells", the "Monet" being "When the Leaves Come Falling Down" which it called a masterpiece.

The 29 January 2008 reissued and remastered version of the album contains two bonus tracks: an alternative take of "Philosopher's Stone" and a new arrangement of Fats Domino's song, "Valley of Tears".

Recorded at the Wool Hall Studios, south of Bath, England, except strings, which were recorded at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin, Ireland. The musicians on the album are understated with Ian Jennings playing double bass, Geraint Watkins playing Hammond organ and Pee Wee Ellis on saxophones.

The opening song "Goin' Down Geneva", a very blues influenced tune, is set in European cities instead of the American South as typical for blues songs.

Prominent on "Philosopher's Stone" is Morrison's harmonica playing with the song featuring "one of the most limber vocal performances he's put on record in years, even tentatively jumping into the high squawk he seemed to have lost." (Hage)

"In the Midnight" is referred to by Allmusic as "bedroom music, pure and simple."


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