Astral Weeks was one of Van Morrison's first solo albums after he quit Them and it still stands as a great anomaly in his back catalogue. It's a staggering work, filled with a great, compassionate sorrow for the world that's cut with an ecstatic mysticism.
His lyrics are visionary and deeply sensual, garbled passages of word-sounds that convey more via their movement and phrasing than any straight reading ever could. His band are phenomenal, although rumours still persist that - due to the fact that Morrison couldn't be in the same room with any of them - they all overdubbed their parts later, the core of the songs being Morrison's solo guitar and vocal track. Either way, the arrangements are glorious.
There's a lightness of touch and a melodic freedom that's fairly jazzy, especially in guitarist Jay Berliner's quicksilver leads, an echo of his work with Mingus on The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady. The vibes, flute and soprano saxophone give the tracks an organic quality as they expand and contract like breath. The title track is a hallucinatory regression, via aerial views of heavy industry, visitations from dead bluesmen and resurrection through love, with Richard Davis' acoustic bass plotting little yelps of joy throughout. Still, Sweet Thing is the stand-out, with Morrison surrendered to love and vowing never to grow so old again. He was 23.
Review from AMG
His lyrics are visionary and deeply sensual, garbled passages of word-sounds that convey more via their movement and phrasing than any straight reading ever could. His band are phenomenal, although rumours still persist that - due to the fact that Morrison couldn't be in the same room with any of them - they all overdubbed their parts later, the core of the songs being Morrison's solo guitar and vocal track. Either way, the arrangements are glorious.
There's a lightness of touch and a melodic freedom that's fairly jazzy, especially in guitarist Jay Berliner's quicksilver leads, an echo of his work with Mingus on The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady. The vibes, flute and soprano saxophone give the tracks an organic quality as they expand and contract like breath. The title track is a hallucinatory regression, via aerial views of heavy industry, visitations from dead bluesmen and resurrection through love, with Richard Davis' acoustic bass plotting little yelps of joy throughout. Still, Sweet Thing is the stand-out, with Morrison surrendered to love and vowing never to grow so old again. He was 23.
Review from AMG
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