Out Of The Vaults (With A Twist): Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

In a few days next installment of "Out Of The Vaults" will be posted but until then I thought we'd try something a little different.

All the way in the far bottom right corner of the CD "Vaults" there lies a small metal container. This is where my wife keeps her CD collection. Inside the container there is a very eclectic mix of about about 70 CDs. I thought for fun I will reach in eyes closed and pull out a random one of HER discs and write about it. 

Out Of Vaults With A Twist  #1 - Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

I am actually pretty familiar with the Irish rock and roll legend Van Morrison. At around 12 years old when I began exploring my parents’ record collection, one of the first LPS I borrowed was Van Morrison’s great Moondance album. On it were some pretty fantastic songs like “And It Stoned Me”, “Crazy Love”, “Into the Mystic” and of course the great title track. Actually pretty much all ten tracks are perfect.

A few years later when I went through my “British Invasion” phase, Van’s previous band THEM was a favorite, even though they were from Ireland and technically not “British”. Their song “Gloria” still remains one of my all-time favorite songs.

Plus of course how could we forget the eternal party staple of Van’s “Brown Eyed Girl”?

For some reason though, I never really listened the post- “Brown Eye Girl” pre “Moondance” album Astral Weeks. Definitely surprising since many music fans and critics consider it Van’s best album; some even consider Astral Weeks one of the greatest albums period. Today since it was the pick out of my wife’s eclectic mix of discs, I have the opportunity to finally listen and explore the  record.

When the first song “Astral Weeks” begins, its great how all instruments come at you from all directions. The flute flies down from the upper left, the guitars down to the right and cello up behind you. At about 4 and a 1/2 minutes the song would be perfect if it came to an end right there. It even sounds like the band thought it was about to finish and were ready to put down their instruments when Van kept on going. After another two minutes it sounds like the band has had enough of Van’s stream of conscious ramblings and attempt to take matters in their own. The cello becomes louder and louder trying to drown out the still singing Van before the song ends at a whopping 7+ minutes.

On Track 2“Beside You” it sounds as if Van forgot to even teach the band the song. They attempt to play along with Van’s vocals, noodling away at their instruments but it is all in vane. The band never really catches up and the 5+ minute song just sounds plain awkward.

Track 3 “The Sweetest Thing”, the only song off the album I was already familiar with, is a very good song. It sounds like a band playing on the corner totally  in sync with each other. At 4 minutes the song is also almost the perfect length, not going on too long and wearing out its welcome like many of the songs on Astral Weeks do.

After another long drawn out song, “Cyprus Avenue” with it’s out of place sounding harpsichord, the real gem of the album comes on. “What Young Lovers Do” is an awesome bouncy song with Van in a great groove, awesome hook in the chorus and not a note of all the instruments out of place.  The perfect length song is by far my favorite song on the record.

Two more way too overlong songs follow before the laid back and quiet “Slim Slow Slider” closes out the album. 

In my opinion the album is pretty good although there are a few moments that sound very under rehearsed. The production, with a full 3D sound of vocals and instruments, is very warm. All the musicians seem at the top of their game, at least when Van has taught them the songs. My only real problem with the album is most of the songs are just too long, going on for two, three, even four minutes past what is necessary.  

After writing this post  I did remove most of the album from my ipod, leaving only "Sweetest Thing" and one of my new 40 year old favorite songs "The Way Young Lover Do". One of my goals is to always discover new (too me) music and "What Young Lovers Do" proves to be a great find.