Astral Weeks- a review

Album name: Astral Weeks
Artist: Van Morrison
Release date: November 1968
Label: Warner Bros.
"Professional" reviews:
AMG 5/5
Rolling Stone 5/5


Come here, to Van Morrison's second and most celebrated album, looking for an immediate single like "Brown-Eyed Girl", "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" or even "Moondance", and you'll be disappointed. Come with no or any other thoughts in your head and the Celtic genius' blend of folk and jazz, with vocals deeply influenced by Ray Charles and other R & B artists, and you'll never leave. This hypnotic album is hardly cheerful, but it isn't remotely nihilist; instead it's a tribute to love and the power of spirituality more moving than almost anything else in rock history. And, as William Ruhlmann of AMG says, it isn't even rock.

The best cut is "Madam George", a stream-of-consciousness character sketch that may or may not be about a transvestite (Morrison says no, but musicians are liars). Also essential are "Astral Weeks", "Cypress Avenue" and "Sweet Thing". Well, all eight songs are essential, but these are more essential than others.

I'd still go with Blonde on Blonde, Rubber Soul and Revolver at the top, but after that, things get pretty close. Wherever they're placed, Highway 61 over this by an absolute whisker.

Note: Hear this along with Nick Drake's Bryter Layter: just as folky and jazzy, less R & B, better guitar, even more morose, less lyrically transcendent, even more beautiful. I also see these two albums as what Ian Anderson would have made were he 54141564561 times more talented.