Track Listing

1. Celtic Ray
2. Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
3. Dweller on the Threshold
4. Beautiful Vision
5. She Gives Me Religion
6. Cleaning Windows
7. Vanlose Stairway
8. Aryan Mist
9. Across the Bridge Where Angels Dwell
10. Scandinavia

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33233 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Delayed Remaster...
In January of 2008 the first 7 titles of Van Morrison's extensive remastered reissues began - followed by 8 more in late June/early July 2008. Here in the UK, these issues came with inlays that advertised the forthcoming titles for phase 3 and 4 - seven more would follow in September 2008 - with the last 8 in January 2009 (30 in total).

The 3rd phase (in which 1982's "Beautiful Vision" was scheduled) was then delayed on some databases to November 2008 - but it now looks as if it won't arrive until February 2009 - next year.

This review is by way of notice to that affect - and a warning to prospective buyers - anyone advertising these remastered titles for sale at inflated prices BEFORE their release date should be avoided.

MELLOW MUSIC
Morrison’s vision finds a mellow, subdued expression here. Instead of his jubilant R&B numbers or his more passionate vocalising, the mysticism here is drawn out in slow pieces like Celtic Ray and Northern Muse, the last with particularly beautiful female backing vocals. The more uptempo Dweller On The Threshold with its esoteric imagery has a lovely lilting rhythm and joyful sax, whilst the powerful title track shows his strong voice at its best. Aryan Mist is another great flowing piece and Across The Bridge Where Angels Dwell is dreamy and meditative, also embellished with gorgeous female vocals. Scandinavia is a moody instrumental with prominent piano or keyboards, like a theme from an art movie. This is not the most familiar Van Morrison album and the songs do not display his usual musical variety, but I enjoy it and there are some great moments here. If you’re in the mood for a more quiet, contemplative spiritual listening experience, you’ll find much here to enjoy. But if you prefer a more rousing form of gnosis, try a song like Be Thou My Vision from Hymns To The Silence. Both Van, both beautiful.

Not a leap into the unknown
Van Morrison's Mercury catalogue was among the first to be re-issued in the CD format and suffered as many did by poor mastering and foreshortened endings designed to conceal tape-hiss and anomalies from the analogue masters, but these faults had been ironed out on this 1994 Polydor re-issue.
Buying a Van Morrison album in the 1980s was not exactly taking a leap into the unknown and true to form Beautiful Vision carries on where Common One left off, the songs often reminiscent of each other, at times so easy on the ear they become almost invisible, like high-quality muzak, with a metaphysical layer of Van's incantations on top. 
The singles were Cleaning Windows, reminiscences of happy times in Belfast, with Mark Knopfler guesting on guitar, and Dweller On The Threshold, which, like Aryan Mist, takes a few leaves from the book of the theosophist Alice Bailey and blends them with the Tibetan Book Of The Dead; the piano-led instrumental Scandinavia turning up as a B-side. The album opener Celtic Ray set the tone and was one of two to feature the Uillean pipes of Sean Fulsom. It was later to be reworked with the Chieftains without the ubiquitous synthesizers on their collaboration Irish Heartbeat. When it all comes together, as on Vanlose Stairway, the results can become compelling