Album: Van Morrison, No Guru No Method No Teacher (Polydor/Universal)

The four great Van albums are ‘Astral Weeks’, ‘Moondance’, ‘Veedon Fleece’ and … this one. It is a little-regarded thing from the height of Morrison’s rapturous period in the Eighties and it is utterly beautiful.

You should buy this remastered edition. Why? Because no one has realised William Blake’s visionary ambitions more cogently in popular song. Because the songs are remarkable (they make the grammars of curmudgeonliness and ecstasy agree).

And the singing is more soulful than any you’ve heard by a white man. “Here come horsemen,” he grunts and, for some reason, you want to cry.