Van Morrison, ‘Open the Door (To Your Heart)’ – Song Review

‘Open the Door (To Your Heart’),’ the new single by Van Morrison has been released. It’s from his new album, ‘Born to Sing: No Plan B,’ which will be released Oct. 2 on Blue Note Records.

The song finds Morrison riding a slick and tasteful mid-tempo R&B groove, which, given producer Don Was’ history (Bonnie Raitt, Bob Seger) is fully expected. Clean electric guitar lines snake their way around Morrison’s vocals, possibly to evoke classics like ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ or ‘Domino.’

Lyrically, ‘Open the Door (To Your Heart)’ is a pleasant and straight-forward plea for someone to embrace love, but for all its good intentions, it lacks inspiration. Things pick up a bit on the bridge, when horns start to gather a bit of steam, but they settle back down to polite levels when the verse comes back in.

Although Morrison’s output in the ’60s and ’70s set a standard for blue-eyed soul singers that has rarely been equalled, his vocals are uninspired here. He throws in a few trademark shouts and grunts, but it still sounds like Was woke him up from a nap on the studio couch and told him it was time to record.

‘Open the Door (To Your Heart)’ sounds like it belongs in the background of a formulaic romantic comedy — specifically, the scene where the male lead realizes he has to break out of his immature ways and commit to the perfect woman who just stormed out the door. In that context it could actually make the scene watchable, but coming from one of the most influential artists in rock history, it’s a bit of a disappointment and gets us running to put on our copy of ‘Astral Weeks.’