VAN MORRISON: Roll With The Punches (Exile)

‘YOU don’t dissect the blues, you just do it,’ says Van of his 37th album, and he’s true to his word, bringing an intimate, ad-libbed feel to standards by Bo Diddley, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Fifties R&B queen Ruth Brown. He is prone to meander — his Bring It On Home To Me is twice as long as Sam Cooke’s original — but he spices the mix with five originals, the celebrity-baiting Fame being the pick.