The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)

After a quick skip through the tracks to get a feel for the album I thought this was going be a struggle.
Have given it 3 full listens now and my first impression proved correct.
I really dislike his voice - reminds me too much of Bob Dylan! The structure of the songs is too wishy washy for me - they just meander along he repeats words and phrases and I found myself wishing he’d STFU. The second track Beside You is a good example of this - his voice just grates. I’m sure the repetition is a great use language to create the mood but it doesn’t do it for me. The “breathe in, you breathe” out repeated ad nauseam being an example.
I was playing it in the car until Mrs Daze was heard to use various expletives and asked me to put something decent on. For the record, her musical tastes are far more mainstream than mine, and we settled on Gordon Lightfoot for the rest of the journey.
On a positive note there’s some decent guitar and some nice vibraphone - an instrument of which I am a fan from my school days. The only track I’d listen to again at a push would be The Way That Young Lovers Do… if I never heard it again I wouldn’t be upset.
2/10 from me - plus an extra one for the vibraphone so a 3/10 in total
 
journolud said:
Van Morrison-Astral Weeks
It’s been a case of diminishing returns for me some time now with Van Morrison but that shouldn’t be a stick to beat him with, he’s far from being alone in that respect of the musical icons of the 70s and on. The last release of his I engaged with was the Healing Game from 1997. That album featured the somewhat dubious talents of Brian Kennedy echoing Van’s words, as though the man himself no longer trusted his own vocals. Even so it had it’s moments and it’s more than likely that the nearly 20 albums he’s released since also have their moments. After all, this is Van Morrison we’re talking about.

The Healing Game might have signalled the end of me listening to contemporary Van and in some respects he’s blotted his copybook since quite significantly with his stance on Covid. It’s hard to reconcile the man and the artist. And that’s even before we get into his famed truculence, his difficult interviews, his occasionally perfunctory concert performances (he was only ever good and occasionally spellbinding when I’ve seen him) and his slightly tedious obsession with complaining about the music industry and the artists who have had the gall to be influenced by him and have acknowledged that influence.

Let’s not focus on the negatives though. The Healing Game might have signalled a downturn in his output but it had been marked before by a great run of albums that started with Into the Music from 1979 ( but not including Common One) all of which had moments of transcendence that I don’t think any other artist could match. A cynic might accuse him of a bit of spiritual tourism, which he would and did deny in the naming of No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. During this period Morrison could have read out a shopping list and imbued it with other wordly mysticism and I doubt anyone couild evoke a sense of place I their music like he does.

The first golden age of Van Morrison takes in masterpieces such as Veedon Fleece, St Dominic’s preview and Moondance (the first side of which I think has rarely been bettered as a collection of songs). But before that was Astral Weeks.

It was apparently a source of disgruntlement to Morrison (who was famously easily disgruntled) that despite the quality of his subsequent work so much of it was measured against Astral Weeks. But Astral Weeks…

It’s hard to be original when doing the write ups for albums on this thread and so much has been written about Astral Weeks it seems to be almost superfluous me adding my two pennorth. I hated it when I first heard it and you might too. Not that I think it’s difficult listen but it is far removed from the fairly easy listening of that golden run of albums I mentioned before. It is my favourite Van Morrison album, in fact it is my favourite album full stop. But not necessarily the Morrison album I listen to the most.

It regularly appears in best album of all time lists (16 in Larkins). If you like the album and want to know more about it I’d direct you to the Wikipedia page and the legendary article by Lester Bangs, said by some to be the best piece of music journalism ever. Not that I go with such hyperbole but it is a good read. I certainly haven’t got the literary flourishes of Bangs so can’t adequately put into words where this album takes me, I’ll just ask you to listen to it and well, on you go…
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I don't normally venture on here but what a fucking album. I'd describe it as beautiful. He is a miserable ****, all the same.
 
I've been out of the thread for awhile, anxiously watching the Song Cup and my winning horse, but I'm back in now as this record has of course long been considered one of the all-time classic LPs ever made. This is in stark contrast to the fact that -- up til now -- I've absolutely loathed Van Morrison's music generally, and have made rather caustic comments about it on more than one occasion. As such, Astral Weeks is where the rubber meets the road -- lauded as genius by all and sundry for half a century vs. my pre-conceived notions. I'm about 2/3rds through listen one and feel comfortable I will have my review in on time . . .
 
southamptonblue said:
Having a day off today, I've had this on, and reviewing now as I often forget!
Finding "Brown eyed girl" one of those songs that everybody else seems to like, but I find annoyingly crap and cringy (along with Sweet Caroline)......I never had a thought of listening to anything else by VM, and haven't, or hadn't.
Sorry to whoever put it up, but to me, it's meandering and hookless, if a song goes nowhere after 3mins....stop! Don't continue for another 4 or 5 more mins!
I actually found it more samey than AC/DC and Quo combined, and half the time didn't realise the track had changed.
His voice is ok, but sounded to me like a 'no range' Robert Plant, which didn't enhance the music which I thought was desperate for it, which made it all incredibly boring to me. He's obviously got more talent than me, like all artists (except rappers) have! But sorry poster, it's a very generous 2 for me ;(
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Ummm, I fucking cannot stand it. Might as well be Jimmy Buffett or "Come On Eileen". I detest it with the heat of 1,000 suns. I only reason I don't detest it with the heat of 1,000,000 moons is because that's how I already feel about "Moondance."
 
Well, this is proving to be an interesting choice.

I think the first time I heard this was via an older relative who was a VM fan and my initial response was very much thanks but no thanks it’s just a load of hippie shit.

Then when I got a bit older and got a decent job, I was fancy enough to start buying music magazines rather than music papers and I kept seeing reference to this album and thinking ok perhaps I need to have a proper listen. At some point I saw it going cheap and so bought a copy, I played it a few times mainly because I thought I ought to and still I thought meh really don’t get what the fuss is about.

But then at some point over the years my view changed, I’m not entirely sure when or how. I have a feeling it might have been a while after I started expanding the breadth of my listening to include jazz but I’m not sure the timeline adds up. It might have been when I bought my first decent hi-fi set-up and was happy to sit properly listening to music and better noticing the arrangements on this and appreciating things like Richard Davis’s double bass. It might simply have been that I developed a real liking of the song The Way Young Lovers Do, and it made me more pre-disposed to listen to the rest of it. Or I think more likely, it might have just been a gradual process as life events knocked the sharp edges off me and made me open to more melancholic sounds and some of its beautifully plaintive moments.

Whatever it was, at some point I stopped caring about the fact that he’s not a stellar singer and the fact that it meanders a fair bit. Rather than trying to dissect individual songs, I started listening to its overall tone both musically and lyrically and it just sort of started seeping in. The lack of crystal clarity to his general themes became enjoyable rather than annoying. At some point it registered that he was a very young man when he wrote this which, despite his own protestations, I think makes it pretty incredible. The fusion of the different genres and styles, one of my favourite things about this album, no longer made it sound confused it just began to draw me in more. A some point I came to the conclusion that it is one of those rare albums that has the capacity to simultaneously wash over you at the same time as making you pay attention to it’s details. I also came to form the opinion that this is a record that could only have been written and performed by an Irishman but to this day I couldn’t explain what the hell I mean by this.

Fortunately, I didn’t have anything invested in him in my formative years and so I don’t have any trouble separating the art from the artist. He may be an arse, but to me this will always stand as a great record. The main reason it doesn’t get a 10 from me is that though it can evoke powerful feelings it doesn’t speak powerfully to a particular time and place in my own life. That said, the way it has crept up on me over the years does feel quite personal, like the waves smoothing over the pebbles on the beach.

So having added my own load of old bollocks to all the other tosh that’s ever been written about this album, I’m giving it 9/10.
 
ASTRAL WEEKS

I got into Van Morrison a bit later into his career and by chance, I’m a big fan of Mick Ronson who was part of VM touring band in the late 70s.I saw a film of him playing on ‘The Period Of Transition ‘tour’ and immediately bought the album It isn’t one of his best but I then started to buy his back catalogue which of course included Astral Weeks, and by then I knew this was rated as a classic Album.
I played it a lot along with ‘Moondance’ which is my personal favourite.Listening to it again I think his voice started to sound better as he got older but it’s a great album which I don’t think dates too much.There’s some amazing songs on this album ‘Sweet Thing’ ‘The Way Young Lovers do’‘Cypress Avenue’ ‘Ballerina’ and ‘Madam George’
I love the mixture of instruments and don’t care what he was singing about , he was probably off his face at the time of writing them.

For those that don’t like his voice here’s a few covers of the tracks on this album including VTM own better version of ‘CA’ off the live album ‘It’s too late to Stop Now’ one of the best live albums of all time IMO.

9/10







 
Saddleworth2 said:
Scoring it is very difficult. When I’m in the mood it’s a ten. When I’m not it’s no more than a seven. I think I’ll skip a score. Just interested in what the others think.
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Given you nominated Bruce's 2nd album earlier this summer, I'd at least be interested in how you see the parallels in both albums, given Astral Weeks was such a big influence of Bruce's first album, and 2 tracks of note from his second:

www.huffpost.com

HuffPost Reviews: Van Morrison -- <i>Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl</i> / Asa -- <i>Asa</i>

With a basic reverence for the original record, Morrison's live arrangements allow for musicians to add new layers of strata though jams, while acknowledging forty years has passed since the original was slated.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

"When Van Morrison's essential work, Astral Weeks, hit the stores in 1968, it instantly was revered by critics and musicians around the world. It influenced future cultural icons such as Bono and especially, Bruce Springsteen, whose "Incident on 57th Street," "New York City Serenade," and virtually all of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. sounded like unintended tributes to the Celtic rocker."

And after reading all the reviews here of Bruce's Wild and Innocent album to see if anyone made any connection, I'll point out that @FogBlueInSanFran noticed some parallels of Van Morrison to Bruce's 2nd album:
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I can tell you specifically why I’ve never really gotten into Springsteen, nor Dylan, nor Van Morrison, nor countless other artists. It’s because a lot of the work by these artists sublimates the music to the vocalist/lyricist. In other words, it’s poetry of varying quality set to music, not music with a singer accompanying it. Come to think of it, even all the hip hop I like starts with the groove too.
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Anyways, my review of this album has changed dramatically over the week with repeated listens. That will be ready tomorrow. Also, @journolud who has this week's nomination wasn't that impressed with Bruce's 2nd (6/10) as with his later works, so I found that a bit interesting given this week's nomination. Musical tastes are interesting and not often as easy to predict.

And, although this doesn't count, I'm still voting:

Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle 9/10

(and I nearly wept hearing someone liked 'Lucky Town' over this, but I was still too busy laughing!)
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Given you nominated Bruce's 2nd album earlier this summer, I'd at least be interested in how you see the parallels in both albums, given Astral Weeks was such a big influence of Bruce's first album, and 2 tracks of note from his second:

www.huffpost.com

HuffPost Reviews: Van Morrison -- <i>Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl</i> / Asa -- <i>Asa</i>

With a basic reverence for the original record, Morrison's live arrangements allow for musicians to add new layers of strata though jams, while acknowledging forty years has passed since the original was slated.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

"When Van Morrison's essential work, Astral Weeks, hit the stores in 1968, it instantly was revered by critics and musicians around the world. It influenced future cultural icons such as Bono and especially, Bruce Springsteen, whose "Incident on 57th Street," "New York City Serenade," and virtually all of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. sounded like unintended tributes to the Celtic rocker."

And after reading all the reviews here of Bruce's Wild and Innocent album to see if anyone made any connection, I'll point out that @FogBlueInSanFran noticed some parallels of Van Morrison to Bruce's 2nd album:


Anyways, my review of this album has changed dramatically over the week with repeated listens. That will be ready tomorrow. Also, @journolud who has this week's nomination wasn't that impressed with Bruce's 2nd (6/10) as with his later works, so I found that a bit interesting given this week's nomination. Musical tastes are interesting and not often as easy to predict.

And, although this doesn't count, I'm still voting:

Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle 9/10

(and I nearly wept hearing someone liked 'Lucky Town' over this, but I was still too busy laughing!)
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That’s some excellent research
 
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