Van Morrison's New Album Has Songs Titled "They Own the Media" and "Why Are You on Facebook?"

Sorry, we mean his 'Latest Record Project'

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Mar 3, 2021

Last year, Van Morrison used his songwriting to rail against lockdowns, but the time indoors couldn't have been that bad, as he has now returned with news of a double album.

Morrison will release Latest Record Project: Volume 1 on May 7 through Exile/BMG, and while the double album is billed as "a 28-track delve into Van's ongoing love of blues, R&B, jazz and soul," its song titles could certainly paint a different picture.

For example, how are listeners supposed to interpret a title like "They Run the Media" after a year of Morrison making headlines with his anti-lockdown, "pseudo-science" stances last year?

Other song titles like  "Why Are You on Facebook?," "Where Have All the Rebels Gone?," "Stop Bitching, Do Something," "Psychoanalysts' Ball" and "Big Lie" fall into the similarly concerning, if not outright cringeworthy, vein.

However, a press release notes that the only album track concerning lockdown is "Deadbeat Saturday Night," as the previously shared "Stand and Deliver" and "No More Lockdown" do not appear in the tracklist. 

On the album's title track, which you can hear below, Morrison would rather listeners look past the beloved hits to discover more of what his catalogue offers: "Have you got my latest songs I'm singing? / You got my latest songs I'm singing? / Not something from so long ago / Not something that you might want to know / But something I can relate to in the present."

"I'm getting away from the perceived same songs, same albums all the time," Morrison added in a statement. "This guy's done 500 songs, maybe more, so hello? Why do you keep promoting the same 10? I'm trying to get out of the box."

Latest Record Project: Volume 1 follows Morrison's 2019 release Three Chords and the Truth.


Latest Record Project
:

Disc 1:

1. Latest Record Project
2. Where Have All The Rebels Gone?
3. Psychoanalysts' Ball
4. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
5. Tried to Do The Right Thing
6. The Long Con
7. Thank God for The Blues
8. Big Lie
9. A Few Bars Early
10. It Hurts Me Too
11. Only A Song
12. Diabolic Pressure
13. Deadbeat Saturday Night
14. Blue Funk

Disc 2:

1. Double Agent
2. Double Bind
3. Love Should Come With A Warning
4. Breaking The Spell
5. Up County Down
6. Duper's Delight
7. My Time After A While
8. He's Not The Kingpin
9. Mistaken Identity
10. Stop Bitching, Do Something
11. Western Man
12. They Own The Media
13. Why Are You On Facebook?
14. Jealousy

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