Albums like these make me feel inadequate as a reviewer. So much I want to say, but no idea how to say it. This album makes me feel everything there is to feel. It takes me everywhere from joy, to love, to despair. From all the van Morrison I’ve listened to, this seems to be his most ambitious project. Every song there seems to be a new sound that catches my interest, so much beautiful instrumentation and such a variety of instruments packed into eight songs. Every time I hear strings or a flute(?) I ascend. Morrison’s vocals are soulful as always. Great songwriting. The whole album has a mystique around it that i can’t quite describe. It gives me peace. It’s interesting how different this sound is from his other albums. Moondance has always been my favorite van Morrison album, but there’s no doubt it’s the more easily consumable of the two. The more times I listen to this, the smaller the gap becomes. To lay this “Ed Sheeran of the 60’s” SLANDER to rest: Morrison and Sheeran both sing and play the guitar. They both belong, at least somewhat to the singer/songwriter genre. That’s where the comparisons end. Ed Sheeran has made the most basic, mainstream radio pop of possibly anyone in the last decade. Astral weeks was and is considered one of the more original, ambitious, and influential albums of the 60’s. Certainly within the sphere of folk/rock. This music wasn’t made for radio plays. Despite its acclaim, it’s never been an overly popular album. I would venture to say that nothing in Sheeran’s and ENTIRE career been as ambitious or impressive as the composition of ANY single one of the tracks on this album. There was nothing that sounded like this at the time, and truthfully, there hasn’t been since. Best: Sweet thing, Cyprus avenue, astral weeks, madam George Albums haven’t been good for MMMs recently and this one is more of the same. There is nothing particularly catchy about this album, considering considering it’s lack of conventional verses/hooks. It’s almost like poetry put to music in some ways. But I digress: no MMM today.