| Wavelength | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 1978 January 2008 (reissue)(remastered+2 tracks) | |||
| Recorded | Spring 1978 | |||
| Genre | Pop rock,R&B | |||
| Length | 49:32 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros.(original release) Polydor(1988 reissue + all subsequent reissues) | |||
| Producer | Van Morrison | |||
| Van Morrison chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Wavelength | ||||
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Wavelength is the tenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriterVan Morrison, and was released in the autumn of 1978. The album has a different musical sound from his previous albums, leaning towards apop rock sound with prominent electric guitars and synthesizers.Wavelength was Morrison's best selling album at the time of the original release.[1]Mick Glossop,Bobby Tench andPeter Bardens were given credit for special assistance in production.[2]
A remastered version of the album was released on 29 January 2008. It contains two bonus tracks, "Wavelength" and "Kingdom Hall", taken from the promotional albumVan Morrison Live at theRoxy (1979), recorded on 26 November 1978.[3]
Wavelength was recorded over several months at the Manor inOxfordshire, England, and completed later at Shangri-la studios in the United States. Morrison had brought together musicians that represented almost all phases of his musical history to date:Herbie Armstrong from his showband days inBelfast,Peter Bardens fromThem,Garth Hudson fromthe Band andPeter Van Hooke who had worked with Morrison a few years earlier.[2] He also added guitaristBobby Tench who had been working withStreetwalkers at that time.[4]
The songs on this album recall various stages of Morrison's life. "Kingdom Hall" harked back to his childhood in Belfast when he attended services with his mother, who at one time was a practisingJehovah's Witness.[1] "Checking It Out" is about a relationship going wrong and being rescued by "guides and spirits along the way".[1] "Natalia", "Venice USA" and "Lifetimes" are love songs. "Wavelength" recalled fond memories of his adolescence listening to theVoice of America.[1] The next track incorporates two songs Morrison had written in the early 1970s: "Santa Fe" written withJackie DeShannon in 1973, Morrison's first ever collaboration to appear on an album, and "Beautiful Obsession", which was first played during one of his concerts in 1971.[5] No studio version of the song is known to have been recorded during that period.[6] "Hungry For Your Love" appeared in the hit movieAn Officer and a Gentleman (1982); on it, Morrison playselectric piano accompanied by Herbie Armstrong's acoustic guitar.[1] It has become, along with "Wavelength", one of the more enduringly popular songs on the album. Morrison included "Hungry For Your Love" on his compilation albumVan Morrison at the Movies – Soundtrack Hits (2007).
"Take it Where You Find It" ends the album and, according to Scott Floman, is a "quietly epic love letter to America that gets better and better as it goes along (the song is nearly 9 minutes long). Simply put this song, which I'd rank among Van's all-time best, makes me want to lock arms with someone, anyone, and commence in a slowly swaying sing along..."[7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [8] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [9] |
| Uncut | [10] |
| The Village Voice | B+[11] |
| DownBeat | [12] |
In a contemporary review forRolling Stone,Lester Bangs gave a lukewarm assessment and calledWavelength "a very nice record. I'm sure all the people at Warner Bros. are pleased with it. Ditto the DJs... Still, though, it do confound how such a monumental talent can mire himself in such twaddle, fine as some of it may be."[13]Melody Maker reviewed the album as evidence of Morrison's "drift into theAmerican Dream."[14] InThe Village Voice,Robert Christgau referred to it as a good but not great album and called attention to side two, which he felt was "an evocative reinterpretation of Van's America fixation, but side one is nothing more (and nothing less) than class programming."[11]Time magazine was more enthusiastic: "Morrison has made two, maybe three albums that rank high among the finest of all rock 'n' roll.Wavelength is good enough to stand close by Morrison's best work, a record of sinuous, sensuous magic. The man just can't be beat."[15]
In a retrospective review forAllMusic,Stephen Thomas Erlewine said "Wavelength essentially picks up whereA Period of Transition left off, offering a focused, full-bodied alternative to that record's warmly fuzzy lack of direction."[8]Rob Sheffield wrote inThe Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that the record was a "failed pop move" redeemed by its "worthy hit" title track, "which like many of his best songs expresses the profound spiritual yearning to listen to the radio".[9]
Record World said of the single "Natalia" that it "has a smooth beat, punctuated by...jazz/ pop vocal power."[16]
In his review forDownBeat, Bob Henschen wrote, "Morrison is getting back to the honest mixture of basic rock and R&B that has made him, for a decade and a half since the emergence of them, one of the United Kingdom’s most convincing blues and soul singers".[12] Henschen assigned 4 stars to the album.[12]
Morrison denied that the songs were anything but about personal experience, and were not about the United States.[14] It quickly became the fastest-selling album that Morrison had recorded at that time, and wentgold within three months.[1] He relocated to Europe within a few years; his work during the 1980s would not be so "radio friendly" and easily accessible to the casual listener. With the success ofWavelength, Morrison assembled a band to promote it, similar in many ways to the abandonedCaledonia Soul Orchestra ofIt's Too Late to Stop Now fame. During theWavelength tour, Morrison performed in his nativeBelfast for the first time since leaving for the US to record "Brown Eyed Girl" forBang Records. Morrison's first video,Van Morrison in Ireland, released in 1981, resulted from these performances, and featured two songs from the album: "Wavelength" and "Checkin' It Out".
The cover on the album was by photographer Norman Seeff (associated withJoni Mitchell's album sleeves), and shows Morrison almost smiling and dressed in tight white trousers smoking a cigarette down to the butt.
All songs written byVan Morrison except where noted.
Includes the same tracks as on the original, with two additional bonus tracks recorded live at theRoxy Theatre,West Hollywood, on 26 November 1978:
| Chart (1978/79) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report)[17] | 16 |
| US Top LPs & Tape (Billboard) | 28 |
| UK Albums Chart | 27 |
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