Quote:
Originally Posted by d-ray657
I was doing a bit of driving around the state last week, which gave me plenty of listing time. I had to time to listen to Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier as a whole. I did not see any weak spots on the album. It is an original sound. I liked it very much.
I also returned to Astral Weeks - listening to it twice. It still does not move me. Part of the problem might be that I heard live versions of a few of the songs before I heard the original album. The live recordings were so dynamic that they left the originals sounding mundane. I love many of Van's albums and I have several versions of live recordings by him, so it is no rejection of Van to not be impressed by Astral Weeks. In fact, it is somewhat disappointing to not hear the same wonder heard by others. But it is not there for me.
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I bought Astral Weeks after I first heard Moondance in the early 1990s.
It is not the easiest album to get into. Astral Weeks Live At The Hollywood Bowl (2009) is in my opinion much better. Van's lower register voice gives it a world weariness and sadness not present on the album he made when he was younger. It may not reach the heights of It's Too Late To Stop Now but it comes pretty close. There is a yell from the audience that matches perfectly with the opening of Slim Slow Rider. Grab the CD before it becomes too $$.