Astral Weeks

It was wonderful...

I realized that the wonderful Song ''Madame George'' was not long enough even if it's over 8 minutes.

I was trying to feel The songs.

I knew Van Morrison one month ago and listened to the album moondance first.. It was also really good but now i realize that Astral Weeks is much Better. All songs on the album are at least 5 stars except for beside you witch i give a 4 star.

Everyone needs it. It's a kind of bible witch chords!


Eternal   July 15, 2004
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have only recently got into Van Morrison, I have to say, so this review is coming from a 23 year old from Belfast, who is only beginning to realise the impact Van's music has had. I must also admit that I had a strange bias against Van, for only a few years ago when playing his (and my) hometown he turned his back to the audience for his entire performance... While I was not there, that arrogance and ignorance really put me off the man, and unfortunately, that little portion of his music that I had heard...

So now, having given this album a chance; my friend recommended it as one of his favourites of all time; I have to admit that, no matter what stories I have heard of this artist, his music is something absolutely eternal and mesmerising.

From the stunning opening chords to the title track, through the absolutely seminal "Cyprus Avenue", "Madame George", "Ballerina" and "Sweet Thing", I have found an album with such undeniable heart and warmth that I know it will stay with me forever as one of the very few albums to have changed my perception of music.

Perhaps it is the unbelievable vocal talents of the man, the jazzy and superb musicianship or just maybe the fact that I can (100%) identify with the visions this man is painting through his lyrics... It is not something I have experienced before whereby a lyric such as "Down on Cyprus Avenue" or "Sandy Row" can conjur such vivid and mesmerising images to my mind... I live just 5 minutes from the lovely Cyprus Avenue and I know it well. Thankfully I do not know Sandy Row too well; a scummy, horrible area of Belfast these days, I am proud never to have ventured deep into it. I do also know the house where Van grew up however, my father having taken me and my friends many times passed the house (which is now adorned with a brass plaque with his name) in east Belfast, just around the corner from my own house. It is maybe these insider views of the area I know that Van grew up in that help the pictures become clearler and more poignant... But his voice and passion can never be denied... It is truly something to behold, whether it be the vast epic of "Madame George" or the fiery jazz bombast of "The Way Young Lovers Do", you can never deny this man doesn't hold perhaps the most original, impressive voice in music... ever.

This album, it must be said, seems (to me at least) to be his absolute masterpiece... Moondance is an album I have always heard since I was growing up... I never listened to it specifically, but it was always on in the kitchen when I was a kid...and, while I have yet to hear much of his later work, it is a journey I am going to fully enjoy and cherish. A man, a genius and an absolute legend. Beautiful album.


Van gets lengthy and ambitious   July 5, 2004
All of Van's stuff from this era is brilliant. Astral Weeks is considered to be his masterpiece. It is very good. But, do we really want to hear Van break into one of ethereal chants for five minutes? The songs are great but they suffer from this kind of self indulgence that the other albums don't have. Van' really at his best when he's to the point. He can still manage the whole zen thing if he wants to, just tone it down. "Warm love" is perfect on this one.


The best Van album, so good it's spiritual   June 29, 2004
I must admit that I haven't heard every single Van album (I missed hearing alot of his earlier albums), but this is the best I heard--better than Moondance, Wavelength, and all his newer stuff--by far. A few years ago I picked up Astral and Moon at the same time and Moon hardly gets spun.

There are some quality issues with the recording where some sonic distortion appears, but I never really noticed it after the first listen. I actually kind of like it, it's so unlike today's over-produced stuff. Van went into the studio, laid down the album in 2-3 days, and it was done...and the magic comes through.


Essential Music   June 18, 2004
Next to Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," this is the most beautiful album ever made. The first verse ALONE is worth a $15 purchase:

If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dreams
Where mobile steel rims crack
and the ditch in the back roads stop
Would you find me?
Would you kiss my eyes
and lay me down
in silence easy
to be born again...