RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Astral Weeks – Van Morrison
Who hasn’t heard of Astral Weeks? There can’t be many music fans who that applies to because it’s regularly lauded as one of the greatest albums of all time. Who hasn’t heard Astral Weeks? Well, there’s me at least.
It’s been interesting reading the reviews so far because a lot of what has been said is exactly what I was thinking as I was listening to Van Morrison’s classic.
Whilst it’s certainly not a bad album, there are too many tracks that spend too long going nowhere. It’s like sitting on a bus waiting in traffic only to find that the destination wasn’t worth all the torment (or maybe the destination didn’t exist). That’s not to say that music can’t be enjoyed if it’s slow or whimsical, but to my ear, it’s a matter of how you present it.
Let’s start with the negatives. The title track and “Beside You” are OK but nothing special. I think Van Morrison’s voice is OK and there are little touches from the instruments that hint at what might have been. The last three tracks suck any momentum out of the album. Van’s voice is so repetitive here – he may be singing different words in each line but the delivery of each is almost identical such that he might as well be singing the same thing again. I wouldn’t want to listen to these songs again. Dylan does this sometimes in songs and I hate it, even though I like a lot of his work.
However, “Sweet Thing”, “Cypress Avenue” and “The Way Young Lovers Do” provide a satisfying listen that is lacking in the rest of the album. Those acoustic guitars give the first and third of those tracks a nice shot of pace, and even though “Cypress Avenue” is again a slower song, it has changes. I’ve put that bit in bold because it is so important. It’s not whether a song is fast or slow, it’s the way the music shifts and the artist’s voice with it.
I’ve read that this album influenced Bruce Springsteen’s first two albums, and I can hear influences on other artists I admire such as Counting Crows. It’s interesting that @Black&White&BlueMoon Town mentioned The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle because after listening to Astral Weeks, I went back and played "Kitty’s Back” and “Rosalita” from this, one of The Boss’s best albums. The sheer joie de vivre in these early tracks from Bruce is sorely lacking from Van Morrison’s effort. I think Bruce’s debut, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, actually suffers from some of the same problems as Astral Weeks, and the improvement between albums 1 and 2 in his case was astounding.
Some of the playing on this album is very good – the walking bass lines are great, there’s some nice fiddle and a bit of orchestration, but for me, the arrangements also let the overall sound down. Too much of Van’s voice and not enough use of the players at his disposal.
It's also worth noting that as a few people have mentioned Moondance, I had a listen to that album as well, and this is much more up my street. I have heard the title track sung by a few crooners over the years yet I never knew it was a Van Morrison song! His original version is far better than the Michael Buble treatment.
So, after all of that, where does it leave us for a score? I would say that 5 sounds about right, but I’ll give him an extra point for the clear influence on other artists that followed in his wake – and crucially, improved upon the formula: 6/10.
Who hasn’t heard of Astral Weeks? There can’t be many music fans who that applies to because it’s regularly lauded as one of the greatest albums of all time. Who hasn’t heard Astral Weeks? Well, there’s me at least.
It’s been interesting reading the reviews so far because a lot of what has been said is exactly what I was thinking as I was listening to Van Morrison’s classic.
Whilst it’s certainly not a bad album, there are too many tracks that spend too long going nowhere. It’s like sitting on a bus waiting in traffic only to find that the destination wasn’t worth all the torment (or maybe the destination didn’t exist). That’s not to say that music can’t be enjoyed if it’s slow or whimsical, but to my ear, it’s a matter of how you present it.
Let’s start with the negatives. The title track and “Beside You” are OK but nothing special. I think Van Morrison’s voice is OK and there are little touches from the instruments that hint at what might have been. The last three tracks suck any momentum out of the album. Van’s voice is so repetitive here – he may be singing different words in each line but the delivery of each is almost identical such that he might as well be singing the same thing again. I wouldn’t want to listen to these songs again. Dylan does this sometimes in songs and I hate it, even though I like a lot of his work.
However, “Sweet Thing”, “Cypress Avenue” and “The Way Young Lovers Do” provide a satisfying listen that is lacking in the rest of the album. Those acoustic guitars give the first and third of those tracks a nice shot of pace, and even though “Cypress Avenue” is again a slower song, it has changes. I’ve put that bit in bold because it is so important. It’s not whether a song is fast or slow, it’s the way the music shifts and the artist’s voice with it.
I’ve read that this album influenced Bruce Springsteen’s first two albums, and I can hear influences on other artists I admire such as Counting Crows. It’s interesting that @Black&White&BlueMoon Town mentioned The Wild, The Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle because after listening to Astral Weeks, I went back and played "Kitty’s Back” and “Rosalita” from this, one of The Boss’s best albums. The sheer joie de vivre in these early tracks from Bruce is sorely lacking from Van Morrison’s effort. I think Bruce’s debut, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, actually suffers from some of the same problems as Astral Weeks, and the improvement between albums 1 and 2 in his case was astounding.
Some of the playing on this album is very good – the walking bass lines are great, there’s some nice fiddle and a bit of orchestration, but for me, the arrangements also let the overall sound down. Too much of Van’s voice and not enough use of the players at his disposal.
It's also worth noting that as a few people have mentioned Moondance, I had a listen to that album as well, and this is much more up my street. I have heard the title track sung by a few crooners over the years yet I never knew it was a Van Morrison song! His original version is far better than the Michael Buble treatment.
So, after all of that, where does it leave us for a score? I would say that 5 sounds about right, but I’ll give him an extra point for the clear influence on other artists that followed in his wake – and crucially, improved upon the formula: 6/10.