Van Morrison: A legendary singer, into the music once again

The Belfast Cowboy is back!

Van the man defines blue-eyed soul. He is in a class of his own.

Astral Weeks is one of the most overrated albums in history. Morrison can't sing for a toffee and the songs are largely tuneless and dragging.

Morrison can't sing for a toffee and the songs are largely tuneless and dragging.

The majority of the rest of the world seems to disagree with you.

I don't mind. Lots of people think lots of dross is good.

Maybe Monnraker, but this "dross" has been voted one of the best albums in history for almost 50 years now.

Yes, and I can't understand it. I even re-listened to the album a few weeks ago to see if I had missed something. I am always prepared to doubt my assessment but it's all opinion in the end. You like it, and some of the self-styled opinion-makers like it. I don't care. I think it's overrated rubbish. There's plenty of that too. Yet also overlooked masterpieces of music out there from the same era. Moving on, I think Dark Side of the Moon is great. Some people, amazingly, don't like it. Hell, I like Seinfeld but I just read a funny piece about it last night written by someone who doesn't.

@moonraker, agree that other VM recordings like the entirety of Moondance have stood the test of time better than Astral Weeks.

Them, Van's previous band, had music strong enough to be sampled by Beck/Dust Brothers 30 years after it was made. Pretty influential legacy.

He is a total jack*** but the man can sing and write tunes, no doubt about that.

Van can be self-indulgent exile (Sense of Wonder) and even God-bothering Cliff Richard bedfellow, but Sweet Thing still makes my heart frolic like a spring lamb.

Cracking songwriter. I'm not a fan of Astral Weeks but the Moondance album has some superb tracks. These Dreams of You is a stormer of a song.