Unfortunately, if you make popular music long enough, you get trapped into recording at least one duets album. You will dust off your sterling catalog, have an intern call a standing list of people with whom you have worked over the years, and like a Saturday night trip to a karaoke bar, have your music friends half-assedly sing your hits.

Welcome to Van Morrison’s newest album, Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue (RCA Records). Featuring a stellar cast of heavyweights including Mavis Staples, Bobby Womack, and strangely, Michael Buble, this album makes up for its boring conventions with its ballsy track list. Instead of rehashing songs from Moondance and Tupelo Honey, Morrison delves deep into the lesser knowns of his archive. Although recorded in a vacuum of digital clarity, songs like “Wild Honey” (sung with Joss Stone) and “Rough God Goes Riding” (sung with his daughter Shana Morrison) are bold attempts to highlight songs that Van Morrison wants you to remember he wrote. Considering that this album is his 35th, there is reasonable precedence for that kind of paranoia.

If you’re not a diehard fan, just take this album as a field guide of his work. Listen to Van and Bobby Womack sing “Some Peace of Mind” and then listen to the original album from whence it came, Hymns to the Silence. Listen to Van and Steve Winwood trip over “Fire in the Belly” and know that that the original (and more moving) recording came from his understated 1997 album, The Healing Game. Regardless of the era, Morrison’s soul and undeniable growl are always on full display. This might not be his best work, but as with any artist who has been around for five decades, you have to respect his hunger to stay in the game.