Bowie was one of a kind. This is one of his finest, but it's even more extraordinary how far he came from the David Jones of 1967 to this in 1972. Mainline Glam Rock.
The first 45 seconds of vamping groove (edited out of the single version) changes the context of the familiar and absolute classic "Chain of Fools" and sets an ominous tone for the song that starts this 1968 soul gem. Despite this and other classic songs/performances ("Natural Woman"), this doesn't feel like a cohesive album. Aretha never sounds anything less than amazing, but, for instance, going from the emotional beauty of Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" into the goofball "Niki Hoeky" is just odd. "Groovin'" is here too for some reason, and doesn't really improve the original. The last song is what I don't like about when r&b singers "go too far". Regardless, this album is worth having for the two incredible singles alone.
If there's one thing this album is, it is completely ITSELF. George Clinton was not afraid to make the album that HE wanted, not what he thought would sell the best or be the easiest to listen to. He was lashing out, in his own unique way. A 10-minute electric guitar solo to start the album, and a 10-minute chaotic jam to end it, with five slabs of funk perfection sandwiched in between, is not everyone's cup of tea. Although Eddie Hazel's (mostly) unaccompanied guitar heroics in the opening track are stellar, it's not the kind of track you want to put on repeat. Those middle 5 songs, though... damn!
She's writing modern pop music that's on such a higher level than the pop music that gets played on the radio. A radio edit of "Tightrope" should have been a big hit, regardless. I'd never heard this album before. Such a wealth of ideas. Sometimes too many elements are packed into a single song that it's overwhelming. From a purely sonic/visceral standpoint this album is sung, played, recorded and produced beautifully and goes all over the map stylistically. There's another layer, lyrically, that relates to a time-travel narrative... it's a complex work of dystopian sci-fi told in lyrics. Not something anyone can digest in one listening, but holy cow! ...a little like walking in on friend's "hobby" where they had told you they "like trains", but their entire garage is transformed into a miniature city and countryside with a working network of trains/tracks, miniature homes and buildings with lights inside, farm animals... details everywhere that you can't take in on one visit and you're amazed but worry a little about your friend's sanity. If anyone actually reads this before listening to this album, check this out: "The ArchAndroid is a concept album that continues the story conceived in her debut EP. Partially based off of Fritz Lang’s 1927 magnum opus film Metropolis, it loosely tells the tale of an android named Cindi Mayweather as she struggles with both her role as a messianic figure to free other androids, and with her forbidden romance with human Anthony Greendown. Watching Metropolis or fully studying the narrative will only strengthen your listening experience, though it isn’t necessary." [Medium]
If you don't like this album, you don't like Van Morrison. Which is fine, he's not for everybody. But this is his most consistent, best-sung, best-arranged, most accessible album, with four classic songs -- And It Stoned Me, Into the Mystic, Caravan, and of course Moondance. Moondance, the song, is overplayed and parodied, but the magic of it is that any ELSE that tries to play it sound like a parody. Sometimes Van's melodic sense gets repetitive, starting lines on high notes and winding down to the tonic far too often, but at least on this album he makes it work. "Astral Weeks", the album that came before this one, is quite a bit more spacey and folky and less soul-inflected... but if you like "Moondance" and want more, you can't go wrong with the 3 albums that came after. "His Band and the Street Choir" and "Tupelo Honey" especially, and "St. Dominic's Preview" as well (however, the two 10+ minute tracks on St. Dominic's, especially "Listen to the Lion", are not for me). Heartfelt, passionate pop-rock without equal in 1970.