Saturday August 22, 2009

Subject: Belated album review: "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison

I'm not a huge fan of Rolling Stone, but their top 500 albums of all time's top 20 looked like this:

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles

2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys

3. Revolver, The Beatles

4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan

5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles

6. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye

7. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones

8. London Calling, The Clash

9. Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan

10. The Beatles ("The White Album"), The Beatles

11. The Sun Sessions, Elvis Presley

12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

13. Velvet Underground and Nico, The Velvet Underground

14. Abbey Road, The Beatles

15. Are You Experienced?, The Jimi Hendrix Experience

16. Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan

17. Nevermind, Nirvana

18. Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen

19. Astral Weeks, Van Morrison

20. Thriller, Michael Jackson

Even before I'd looked at this list, I'd planned to review the 19th album on their list, "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison. When I saw this, though, I thought it would be far more intriguing to do all 20. So perhaps we'll go out of order, but we'll get them all done in due time. If you have a request, I can surely speed up the review of one of them.

Maybe this isn't interesting to you guys...I'm not one to care all that much. I mean, at the end of the day, I put things up here that interest me. This is a great venue, because if it were any other way, I'd feel pressure to do stuff strictly for my audience. Personally? I'd rather listen to amazing music.

And apparently you guys dig what I dig (21,000 hits), so...yeah. Good times.

In any event. On with the review.

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From Pictures

I've read that this album is either a huge step forward for a genius artist, or the self-indulgent, incoherent rambling of a psychedelic ass. I can't help but love an album that gets really ardent opinions that differ so widely.

I don't like Van Morrison at this point in my life. "Brown-Eyed Girl" makes me physically ill. I heard it on the radio a few weeks ago, and that put it into my head to give ol' Van a chance and see what all the hubbub's about. I like to at least be educated about the things I hate...hell, this may even turn my opinion around. We'll do this in real time.

The first track, "Astral Weeks," opens like Spring. It's just warm and airy, a really happy song. It's a song you'd really have to be in the mood for, with the repeated rhythm and delivery of short lines...nonetheless, it's a nice song. And the lyrics are pretty amazing, given their philosophical nature and just...the man's vocabulary is unusually good for a pop music singer. I'll just say that. I dig it.

"Beside You" is just poetry set to music, really. I'm not the hugest fan of Morrison's voice, I'm finding. It kind of grates on me after a while. He does the same vocal effects over and over again in every song. Not much in the way of imagination in that regard. But the lyrics...Jesus. That's straight genius.

"Sweet Thing" is the song I feel like I was meant to hear from this album. I'm sure it's going to be my favorite from the whole thing. The music comes to the forefront for the first time, to where it's not just something nice in the background for Van to sing over...it's dynamic and really happy. A great, uplifting song. Over too soon, really.

"Cyprus Avenue" features what sounds like harpsichord, which rules. Okay, the album really seems to be picking up now. This is whimsical, lively and nice. Van's voice isn't grating on me as much as usual now. I really dig this one, too. "Sweet Thing" is still my fav, but this is a nice second, so far.

If I had to give the mood of this album so far, it would just be...high school summer vacation.

The swing of the next song, "The Way Young Lovers Do," reminds me of my second least-favorite Van Morrison song, "Moondance." I have wanted to drug and kill hookers to that song for years now. Morrison likes that kind of hipster-ish swing sound...I can, but not often. It's short, and it doesn't suck as much as "Moondance" does, so that's something.

"Madame George" is a melancholy look back at someone from the past...it's a bittersweet effect, beautiful music and wistful lyrics.

I'm finding one has to be in a very patient mood to "get" this album. If you're gonna be in a hurry to go somewhere or you're preoccupied, don't bother with it. It's just going to annoy you. I'm just glad I'm in a relaxed mood tonight. I haven't gotten impatient yet, and...I very well might've on an average day, given that Morrison's voice grates on me generally.

Thinking about it...maybe this song could've been cut down some. Van's just babbling on about nothing still. Jesus.

Almost ten full minutes, this track. Yeah. Okay. Getting impatient. The song's picking up some...but Van's really not going anywhere with it. Fuck.

"Ballerina" is something really exciting: a whole new song. Fuck, that last one took the wind out of the sails. This one starts off nice, but then again it just goes nowhere. Don't tell anyone, but I'm gonna go ahead and skip the last 3 minutes. Goddamnit.

The final song, "Slim Slow Rider," is nice...but fuck man. What is with all the godfuckingdamn repetition? And it's a melancholy song again, one of a girl who's grown up and gotten a new boy and a Cadillac...I just...wow, did this album end oddly. On the last line, the flute goes total jazz, and Van starts banging on a guitar case, and it just fades away.

On the whole, this album is okay. Nothing too groundbreaking in its execution, but the lyrics are generally amazing when Van isn't hammering a nice thought into the fucking ground. I think its sweet and happy moments are far superior to its melancholy ones. Van gets a wee bit maudlin at times, so he's far better off reminding us of the good times rather than the bad.

"Sweet Thing" and "Cyprus Avenue" are by far the best moments on this album, to me. I'm glad I listened to it, though I wouldn't even put it in my top 100 albums of all time, realistically. I see why Rolling Stone liked it, given its sometimes-pretentious nature...that virtually precludes my liking it, though.

At least I walked away with a couple really cool songs and a newfound respect for Van Morrison as a lyricist. I forgive him for "Brown Eyed Girl," at least, and that's really the most he could ask of me.

I don't normally like to do covers, but this is pretty exceptional. Plus, I couldn't find the album version by Van. So screw it.