Astral Weeks
by Van Morrison

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/19/2017 20:37 | #199813 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This remains for me one of those albums where its clear something strange and abstract and almost divine happened. Like few albums before or since such as A Love Supreme, this album almost feels like it has a Godly influence. I don't know how to explain it, but almost every aspect of this record seems soft as air, like a fleeting moment of clarity, like some gossamer in the air which when you reach for it, it is gone, never quite attainable in terms of full conception.

The music, a brilliant mix of irish folk, soul, jazz, blues, and a hundred other things seemingly, is impossible for me to really pin down or categorize. There are moments here of musical beauty and ascendance which is rarely heard. And the vocals by a 23 year old master Van Morrison are mercurial, passionate, they sweep from extreme to extreme as if guided by some unseen hand of some unseen higher power. And the words keep the theme of dichotomy going. Insofar as there are words here that just feel right, they conjure up images and feelings so innate in us as human beings, so true to our conceived form or essence, and yet when you really try to analyze them they, again, seem completely unknowable and abstract.

A Specific moment which for some reason never fails to send shivers down my body is in "Madame George". You know that point at the very beginning when you've just gotten done being happy and exuberant on the previous track "The Way Young Lovers Do" when the bass comes in all slack and earthy like and at that moment Van comes in with his sweet soul? That part for some reason, that exact moment and the whole concatenation of moments leading up to it for some reason makes me think of mental clouds opening, like a person (could be me or you when you listen or Van) is having a moment of spiritual oneness, when he is experiencing a moment of true epiphany and clarity. That for some reason just blows me away every time.

Also the horn on "Slim Slow Rider" is unearthly. Anyway, I won't go into all the points which are exemplary of this albums majesty, cuz, I just don't wanna. Just listen to it again (and again and again and again...) or for the first time.

Just a little inside baseball, I have had this post open and being edited for 3 days. I'm a freak about these lists. I do a lot of listening and dorky "Research". Anyway, you know you have a true towering classic when you find it nearly impossible to move away from an album long enough to even consider other albums for a list. Well, that's been the struggle with Astral Weeks lately.

In closing, How this album came to be is one of those truly miraculous moments. 50 years later and there has still been nothing like Astral Weeks. And every time I go to listen to this profound statement of humanism and spiritual inspiration, I know that I am in for some sort of unearthly reward. This album... my God... Love Applause Love Applause Love

"In another world
In another world
In another time
Got a home on high
Ain't nothing but a stranger in this world
I'm nothing but a stranger in this world
I got a home on high
In another land
So far away
So far away
Way up in the heaven
Way up in the heaven
Way up in the heaven
Way up in the heaven" - Astral Weeks

Grade: 10/10

From Romanelli TOP 100 COMMENTER 05/18/2011 02:07 | #21934 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This is one of the greatest soul albums ever made. This is what soul should be...Van Morrison opening himself to everything around him, and the result is music as it should be. Astral Weeks is beautiful.

From sammanning 04/13/2015 04:33 | #139419 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Easily one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever created. Van Morrison's magnum opus deserves its mention among the Beatles and Dylan albums of the 60s. A groundbreaking, unique, smooth, and inspiring record.

Sweet Thing is magnificent.

From babyBlueSedan TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/10/2015 02:50 | #134530 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

When I first heard this I considered it the worst thing I had ever listened to. If not for the acclaim I would have ignored it forever, but I came back and I'm very glad I did. It's not an immediate or inviting album. It's not easy to connect to. Morrison is a storyteller first and foremost and could care less if you relate to what he's singing about. But the lyrics are true poetry, and the more you hear them and are able to dig into them the better they get. And the instrumentation (which I at first wrote off as a sloppy mix of styles) is pretty unique and is the perfect backdrop to his vocals.

Sonic perfection. Astral Weeks has held up as a truly timeless classic, with undeniably brilliant arrangements and lyrical prowess. Van Morrison takes you on a journey through youth, nostalgia, and the bittersweet beauty of growing older. Few albums are capable of touching the emotional depth of this work. Front to back filled with imagery that has the capability of putting you right in the narrator's shoes. Though not an album that all can experience and enjoy, those who do will be astonished by the callbacks to life in a way that even Yeats would be inspired.