Astral Weeks

Performer: Van Morrison
Artist: Jay Berliner; Connie Kay; Richard Davis
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Van Morrison (vocals, acoustic guitar); Larry Fallon (arranger); Jay Berliner (guitar); John Payne (flute, soprano saxophone); Warren Smith, Jr. (vibraphone, percussion); Richard Davis (bass); Connie Kay (drums). Recorded in New York. Includes liner notes by Van Morrison. Quoted, recommended, and worshipped by the critics for decades, this underground masterpiece has now become part of the establishment. It cries to be listened to without interruption, which may explain why it failed to reach either the UK or US charts. It wanders and weaves, repeating themes and lyrics as if one song, yet we never tire of "gardens wet with rain," "champagne eyes," or the wonder of how Morrison can make a place like Ladbroke Grove seem so hauntingly evocative. This all-acoustic but fully arranged record is also a great educator in opening your eyes beyond pop, to folk, soul, and jazz, and although (or perhaps because) Morrison continues to return to its themes again and again, this is his core.

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.98) - Ranked #19 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...ASTRAL WEEKS is Morrison going deep inside himself, to the far corners of his life and art, without a net or fear..." Q (6/00, p.89) - Ranked #6 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" - "...Its musical daring, mantra-like incantations and kaleidoscopic use of language [is] still beyond cosy categorization....recalling his provincial, '50s Belfast youth with an almost feverish imigination and regret..." Q (Magazine) (p.140) - "[O]ne of rock's crowning glories and, with Morrison at times entering an almost trance-like state of rapture, the very apex of his art." NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #15 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'

Van Morrison first came to notice as the powerful vocalist of the mid-1960s group Them ("Baby Please Don't Go," "Gloria"), and then with the solo hit "Brown-Eyed Girl." Morrison followed this success with two landmark albums, ASTRAL WEEKS and MOONDANCE, which masterfully combined folk, gospel, rock, and jazz. As complex a performer as any that rock & roll has produced, the soulful Irishman has produced numerous outstanding recordings in his long career, mixing his pensive and passionate R&B-inflected rock with a decidedly mystical bent.

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