Hymns to the Silence (1991)

Like a number of other musical geniuses, from Jerry Lee Lewis to Prince, Van Morrison cares about two things: his music and his God. In his early years, as a member of Them (''Gloria'') and as auteur of ''Brown Eyed Girl'' and Moondance, his concern was rock; today, as over the last 10 years, he stands on the Rock. Hymns to the Silence is a sprawling, two-disc set of 21 songs, a moody, tangled, and deeply affecting statement of belief. Low points — a catchy but self-pitying ditty called ''Why Must I Always Explain'' — suggest Bob Dylan at his crankiest. More memorable are long, sparkling workouts of Celtic soul and gospel — ''I'm Carrying a Torch,'' ''Hymns to the Silence,'' ''I Need Your Kind of Loving'' — in which Morrison urgently mixes physical and spiritual love, finding strength in both. Topping it all is a murmuring memoir, ''On Hyndford Street''; backed only by a spooky keyboard and Van's own guitar, the song is an extraordinary portrait of the nights, the silence, the shivers ''in the days before rock & roll,'' when ''we carried on dreaming in God.'' Hymns to the Silence is a major work, a flaming testament to a freefall into faith. A