In Review: Van Morrison, Metallica Load Super Deluxe, Dierks Bentley
Plus King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and short takes on Neil Young, Matt Berninger, the Minus 5 and Marc Ribot.
Van Morrison—Remembering Now [2025]
For a Celtic soul poet, Van Morrison sure has been literal in his old age. His drift toward blunt declarations calcified on Latest Record Project, Vol. 1, a double album delivered during the height of the pandemic that teemed with grievances against lockdown. What was once charmingly cranky now seemed foul, saved only by an easy touch that sometimes slid into laziness. Remembering Now almost plays like an apology for all that unpleasantness. Van can still seem like he can't be bothered with writing song titles anymore—the album's second single is called "Back to Writing Love Songs," which is admittedly a relief after "They Own the Media"—but he's once again taking big swings, claiming that he hasn't lost his sense of wonder on a song that plays like a sideways admission that he's spent the 2010s in a bit of a creative rut. While Remembering Now doesn't feel touched by mysticism—it's too anchored to Morrison's beloved jazz and R&B to soar—the album nevertheless feels softer and kinder than any Van album in recent memory, both in tone and delivery; Morrison eases into the songs, never singing with a sense of bitterness. Wandering through his back pages, Van seeks to reconnect with his original inspirations, taking a journey that culminates with him asserting on the title track "this is who I am." Surely, Remembering Now does feel connected to the impeccably polished soul-jazz of the latter half of Morrison's career, so as it's playing, it's easy to take Van at his word. No matter how smooth and warm this album is, it's hard not to have the ugliness of What's It Gonna Take? echoing in your mind.
Metallica—Loaded [Deluxe Edition] [2025; 1995-1997]
It's hard not to think of it as a prank. Loaded, the least-loved Metallica album, gets a Super Deluxe expansion featuring a whopping 15 CDs supplemented by four DVDs and six LPs. All this bonus material and somehow the reissue still doesn't feature Reload, the band's swift sequel built upon the leftovers from this 1996 boondoggle. (Credit to U2: when they did a doorstop edition of Achtung Baby in 2011, they added Zooropa as a bonus.)