Sound Advice: CD Reviews - Van Morrison (Astral Weeks)

CD Review:
There are three things that attract a person to listen to a song (or album). The first is usually the style of music that is being played. Then it is the voice of the singer. Occasionally it can be the reverse if the singer's voice is so powerful that it overshadows the music, or if the music that is played is sparse or put forth in a slow relaxing manner. The third is the lyrics to the song (or, again, of the album). When you have all three things to your taste, you hear pure beauty. Probably the reason that people are so high on Van Morrison, especially for this album, is that to most, the three elements are there. Van Morrison's voice becomes the first element, the jazz/folk music second and then Van's lyrical talent third. Just as an aside, about the lyrical element, if the lyrics in a given song/album are well put together with great imagery or a theme that prick the heart strings, it will turn a song/album into the most enjoyable experience one can go through. To most, this album contains all those things.

To me personally, like Bob Dylan, I never really liked the vocals of Van Morrison, it irritated my ears. And like Bob Dylan, I only heard a few songs by him on the radio, and because of not enjoying his voice, I went no further in pursuing his music. Those songs would be "Brown-eyed Girl," "Moondance," "It Stoned Me" and "Gloria." Even now I think Patti Smith's version of "Gloria" is the best rendition of the song. Neither song is on this album. But, if you listen to music as much as I do, you can't get away from his influence and friends continually mentioning him with such regard. So, I began, back in the early-nineties, to listen to him to have his music speak for itself. Since this was the album, considered by many to be his best and one of the top albums of all time, I decided to make it my first purchase. I have listened to it many times since then and his voice isn't quite as irritating. But I still can't get around the repetitiveness Van puts to some of song lines. The "to be born again, to be born again, to be born again...," "no no no no no...," "never never never never..." and "baby baby baby..." just rub me the wrong way. His way of taking the beginning of song lines and not singing the words but making a blabber of it instead is also irritating.

Now saying that, when you hear the songs "Cypress Ave." and "Madame George" you realize you have heard something very special. The song "The Way Young Lover's Do" is my favourite because of its truthfulness and you don't hear the song line repetition and his screeching as much as the others. The music is quite good with the use of many instruments with Morrison's acoustical guitar leading the way. The sound of the flute I enjoy the most.

Overall, this could be an album that will strike you, like so many others, and become a regular play in your CD player, and because of this album importance in the history of music, I will recommend it. I just can't give it the 5 stars that many do because of Morrison's voice and the song line repetitions just get to me too much in a negative way.

Scott D. Brown