Still On Top - The Greatest Hits

Van Morrison’s music is like muesli — you either love it or hate it. If you enjoy his special blend of country-blues type of Irish-flavoured soul music there are 37 of his best performances on this double album.

To his credit, Morrison has not ventured much off his chosen path of on-the-road, lost love, missing home kinda music, interwoven with corny phrases like "when that foghorn blows you know I’ll be coming home….".

Like most not so young Morrison afficianados, I also went through the stage of being a Van fan, but his music now seems rather mundane, a little jaded and tad boring with an irritating Bible-punching theme running through many of his songs.

A good example is 'Whenever God Shines His Light', which he does with the ageless Cliff Richard who often ascribes his longevity to The Clean Life and Having Seen The Light.

But then on the flip side of the religious humdrum, Morrison is excellent with his Irish renditions such as 'Celtic New Year' and 'Irish Heartbeat' (with the Chieftains). No surprise, because it goes back to his early career in Belfast, the city he left all those many years ago to carve a new life and a new career for himself and the band Them.

And many years it is, indeed, considering he’s been thumping out a steady stream of albums since the early '60s, teaming up along the way with many a big time artist like John Lee Hooker, Tom Jones and BB King. Those collaborations sit comfortably alongside his big, early hits ('Here Comes The Night', 'Brown Eyed Girl', 'Crazy Love', 'Have I Told You Lately', 'Moondance') and latter-day musings ('Stranded', 'Back On Top') on this double-disc collection.

When it comes to a race between Morrison and muesli, old Van squeaks in by a short head. But only just.